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Wendelin Wiedeking
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O Canada! Snappy Dispatch On VW-Porsche Marriage From Our Neighbor To The North
Here's nice piece of car-business analysis, from north of the border. Volkswagen wants to take another crack at the North American market, and according to biz writer Eric Reguly of The Globe and Mail, VW might be able to pull it off, despite some major hurdles. However, when it comes to the larger goal of knocking Toyota off its perch...well, there are some problems. More »
industry news
Porsche to Volkswagen: We Will Not Break You!
The headline's dialog snip contains an awkward metaphor to be sure. Porsche's HQ is a few clicks to the West of Ivan Drago's crimson homeland, and Volkswagen logically has more in common with a Philadelphia cheesesteak than with Rocky Balboa. But the sentiment is there: Porsche's going out of its way to assure VW workers it won't leverage its new right to buy the Wolfsburg company as a means to bust it apart. This week, Porsche, led by CEO Wendelin "Not to Be Trifled With" Wiedeking formed a new holding company after getting some good news from German courts, which struck down the "Volkswagen law" preventing any entity from controlling more than a third of VW. The rampaging Stuttgarters took out full-page newspaper ads reiterating an intent to keep the two companies separate, with VW remaining in "its current form." But as Reuters reports, union bosses are less than impressed with the outreach, which they note, states nothing about VW's future. Are we witnessing the beginning of a labor war to end all labor wars, or are we just phoning in this sentence by using an obvious historical reference? Find out this winter, at a barricade near you. [Reuters]
industry news
EU Court Set to Allow Porsche Purchase of VW
It sounds like a Porsche takeover — err — they're German automakers, so maybe that should read "merger of equals" — of VW looks to become an almost certain thing as we're hearing the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg is expected today to strike down the so-called Volkswagen Law, a statute devised by the German government to protect the auto giant from an unwanted takeover. This will finally allow Porsche's chairman, Wendelin Wiedeking, to fulfill his declaration of intent for Volkswagen to rival the super best number one awesome automaker from the rising sun, Toyota. So we guess
commentary
Autoextremist Not Hot For Wiedeking
Sweet Peet fires a few shots across Wendelin's bow in this week's tirade, calling the Cayenne an abject failure and current Porsche management a bunch of bumbling bureaucrats who've essentially pissed away Porsche's legacy. We're not so sure about that. Cayenne sales certainly have reached the saturation point; everyone who wants one has one. But the His Sweetness continually talks about Wiedeking's faithlessness to Dr. Porsche's legacy. Lest we forget, ol' Ferdinand designed tractors and tanks. Porsche, like Honda, is an engineering company, and while the Cayenne is ungainly and not something we would ever buy, it is an engineering feat. We'd probably buy a Tiger tank, though. Actually, we'd totally buy a Tiger tank and roll through the streets of Modesto cranking Wilson Pickett. More »
news
Spoil Sport: Porsche Boss Could Take Away VW's "Toys"
Porsche CEO Wendelin "Wunderkind" Wiedeking says the company has no plans to port Porsche's very precise management style and Bruce ber Alles ethos to Volkswagen, despite an increasing ownership stake. Wiedeking told Automobile News that he wouldn't seek greater control than a spot on the supervisory board. He also said VW could one day become as successful as Toyota, but that in order to mine the gold locked in Volkswagen's geological strata, "you have to dig day and night." Of course, more telling is this quote, a reaction to the question of Bugatti and Lamborghini's fate: "no toys anymore." Or should that read "no competition anymore." More »
news: industry news
is the little issue of the two-year noncompete clause in Bernhard's contract. Does this mean that one of the brightest minds in autoexecudom will be sidelined while Pi
ch continues to assert his capricious will via VW's supervisory board and Auburn Hills proves that it seemingly has no idea what it's doing without the firm hand of a German at the helm? Dr. Z, Wendelin, do something! Volkswagen's Bernhard Is Poised To Leave Over Planned Shake-Up [Wall Street Journal (sub. req.)]Related:
Wolfgang & Winterkorn Get Kicked Up a Notch at VW [Internal]
It's Expected, He's Gone: Bernhard No Longer to Represent Vee Dub
is the little issue of the two-year noncompete clause in Bernhard's contract. Does this mean that one of the brightest minds in autoexecudom will be sidelined while Pi
ch continues to assert his capricious will via VW's supervisory board and Auburn Hills proves that it seemingly has no idea what it's doing without the firm hand of a German at the helm? Dr. Z, Wendelin, do something! Volkswagen's Bernhard Is Poised To Leave Over Planned Shake-Up [Wall Street Journal (sub. req.)]Related:Wolfgang & Winterkorn Get Kicked Up a Notch at VW [Internal]
news
Porsche Shoots for All the Marbles: Considers Suing German Government for Control of VW
Mess not with Wendelin the Lionhearted, ye Saxon dogs! Lest ye be dispatched with a slash of Porsche general counsel's mighty broadpen. Argh! What are we on about? It seems the large and in charge leader of the Porsche dream team, Mr. Wiedeking, wants the corporate control that should go along with owning a controlling share of Volkswagen. Porsche has already paid $4.2 billion Boxster bux to nab 21.2 percent of VW (with an option to grab up an additional 3.9 percent). The next largest stockholder is the regional Government of Lower Saxony, which can exersize veto power, as appointed by law. Hockeypucky! says Wendelin, who wants what he paid for — that is, the equivalent of a majority vote over major decisions at VW. Analysts say it's the beginning of a debate over V-dub's future and its potential to be subject to a hostile takeover, and over Porsche's ability to wield enough power to prevent such a fate. It may not be quite the Sack of Magdeburg, but hopefully it won't take 30 years to sort it all out. [Thanks to Ed for the tip.] More »
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