Porsche wants 20% of VW...

[Jim 1]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4281864.stm

 

This is good news, right? :)

[Nick 0]

Looks like it to me.

[chrishill 0]

just read the same thing jim, you beat me to posting it! one thing that interested me was...

 

'VW's other main shareholder is the German state of Lower Saxony, which owns an 18.2% stake.'

 

how bizarre!

[Kevin Bacon 5]

I wonder who was thinking of taking VW over? Can't be Ford, not enough cash.... some big Jap player or a German rival?

[Roger Blassberg 0]

It's an American predatory financier by the name of Kirk Kerkorian, according to report in today's "Independent", who tried to take over Chrysler 10 years ago and has 9,5% of GM.

 

Best wishes

 

RB

[chrishill 0]

'Kirk Kerkorian'? thats the name of a super-villans alter ego if ever i heard one!

[Roger Blassberg 0]

Yes, it sounds a bit James Bond-ish. Probably Armenian by descent in fact.

 

best wishes

 

RB

[The Leningrad Cowboy 0]

'VW's other main shareholder is the German state of Lower Saxony, which owns an 18.2% stake.'

how bizarre!

 

Well, it is the "peoples' car"....

[Tempest 0]

Nope, this all dates back to a law back in the 60s, the so-called VW-law, whereby the state of Niedersachsen (yes, that's where Osnabrück is based, too, this state was in actual fact created by the British forces shortly after the 2nd WW) owned a large share of VW.

 

Not a bad idea, as at least the state has an interest in keeping jobs, whereas vulture capitalists (see example of Rover recently) are only interested in short term profits. These VCs would have taken out the best bits from VW (Audi and Skoda) and sold them off for big Bucks, then scrapped the rest, never mind the masses of unemployed that would have created.

 

So far the idealistic version.

 

There is a more rational version, isn't there always? The world is just not full enough of do-gooders :roll:

 

The BBC article picked up on that: Porsche obtains approx. 30% of all the bits and subassemblies for its cars from VW. Now, if VW would be taken over by a VC, then Porsche could well be in deep trouble, if you see what I mean.

 

Apart from that, the model of family-owned businesses, despite all the contrary opinions in the UK and the US, do seem to last longer, see Porsche (majority shareholders are still the Porsche family and Piech, grandson of Porsche, ex-CEO of VW, and rumoured initiator of this strategic take-over) and BMW! Shareholder companies only need to satisfy the short-term needs of its shareholders and VCs, never ever worry about jobs.

 

Tempest

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Ah cool, so Porsche are helping VW fend off the vultures then, not that VW is a dying carcass in any way! I've always like the link VW have had with Porsche (albeit a shadey beginning where Hitler was involved) and then Ivan Hurst's crew of REME's rescued the Wolfsburg factory after the war and ironed out some 200 faults with the Beetle's design. Maybe it's why Brits love the marque so much?

[woody 0]

As long as the 20% is not the parts department or I wont be able to keep my car serviced at Porsche parts prices.