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Furthering an effort begun by Porsche in 2005, an E.U. commission Wednesday granted permission for the sports car manufacturer to gain control of Volkswagen. If it seems that the buyout process has been happening in slow-motion, that's because it has: Thanks to arcane rules and buyout clauses, Porsche has had to purchase blocks of VW stock over a period of time, culminating in a final buyup in June. The result is that Porsche now owns a 51% stake in Europe's largest automaker, and the gub'ment says it's kosher. Of course, the German state of Lower Saxony, VW's second largest shareholder, can still play all passive-aggressive, so the soap opera is really just getting started. [Reuters UK] More »
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Wendelin Wiedeking has got a lot on his plate right now. The CEO of Porsche has got a line of cars selling like hotcakes, a new super sedan around the corner, and is trying to expand their stake in Volkswagen on the side. So when an operating baby monitor was found in his hotel room ahead of his attendance at a meeting of VW's advisory board, we can understand if a little concern was in order. No allegations have been leveled yet, but an investigation is underway and the possibility of corporate espionage is not out of the question. We'll have to see what happens, but something is rotten in Lower Saxony. [AP Story on Yahoo] More »
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We just received a flash message from Jalopnik tipster Brian, who we think spends his mornings in front of the Reuters wire just waiting for auto-related news to come in. But this one's an industry whopper as the wire company is now reporting it's official — Porsche has given the go-ahead for an increase of their stake in Volkswagen to more than 50%. But fear not lovers of the Knights of Teuton, Porsche has no desire to merge the two companies. Nope, all they want to do is ride the automaker for the people off into the sunset where the two can make sweet, sweet German love. Full and anticlimactic Reuters report after the jump. UPDATE: It's official — Porsche has agreed to increase their equity stake to more than 50%, thus effectively buying VW. More »
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