The writing was on the wall when Porsche upped its stake in VW from late teens to 29% earlier in the year (the maximum permissable single stake).

Then Porsche took the VW board / State of Lower Saxony to court to overule the 47 year old maximum stake rule (against EU competition Law) - it won and now owns almost 31%.

Last month Porsche offered 101 Euros in a "friendly" take-over bid - VW shareholders unanimously rejected Porsche's offer, citing the offer price wasn't equal to the value of the company.

Today:

Porsche AG has officially lodged a request to the European Commission for permission for a hostile takeover of Volkswagen AG - allowing forced ownership of the company if the E.U. gives competition approval. The E.U. has a time frame of one month (until July 2) to consider whether the deal should go ahead or requires further investigation.

A hostile takeover?! :eek:

Chris

Why do Porsche want VW so badly though? Didn't VW used to own Porsche?

It can only be a good thing for people like us surely?

A hostile takeover?! :eek:

Chris

Hostile takeover:

It just means that irrespective of the wishes of VW board of directors, they can buy as many shares as possible on the open market (Deutsche Borse stock exchange) and if either by owning a simple majority (ie 50%) or 2/3rds of the shares (depends on country specific rules) they can force the remaining shareholders to sell their shares at the average or highest price paid (again depends on country specific rules).

Why do Porsche want VW so badly though? Didn't VW used to own Porsche?

Porsche are very good at making a profit, and VW has a huge manufacturing capacity and particularly strong Chinese links as well.

So perhaps they are looking to optimise VW or Porsche through their joint strengths.

They may just be power-mad Germans though (Prof Piech's revenge for being shoved out of VW - he is one Porsche's grandsons)

Didn't VW used to own Porsche?

The companies have had a long-standing cross-ownership (they own shares in each other) - but that is because over the years the Porsche/Piech family have been board members etc of both companies.

Of course the original Beetle was a "Porsche" as it was his design and he started the company. And underneath the first Porsche was a Beetle! (arguably, the 911 still is a Beetle somewhere under there - in its soul at least;) )

VW also own significant or majority shareholdings in SCANIA AB (What was SAAB Trucks) and MAN Trucks.

And underneath the first Porsche was a Beetle! (arguably, the 911 still is a Beetle somewhere under there - in its soul at least;) ).

As long as this remains the case , I'll always want one!

porcshe have been using vw gearboxes for years... even the new boxsters etc have a passat gearbox

The 924 was an unwated AUDI development "given" away to Porsche.

The 924 and later 944 were one in the most profitable ventures that Porsche had in the 80s (until the 968 they were still fitted with the 1980s Polo/Golf trigger door handles)

The less said about the 914 the better though - that was a Porsche that Porsche disowned and gave to VW to manufacture.

Porsche built the AUDI RS2s and some A6s (they had excess capacity at Leipzeig)

Having said that, during lean times Porsche also built the E500 Mercedes aswell.

Of course to this day they still share R&D - the Cayenne/Touareg being the most integrated.

Bizarrely the R36 engine is fitted to the Cayenne - so you buy a Posche for its engineering and get a (breathed on) VW engine :eek:

The mini-Touareg VW Tiguan may spawn the mini-Cayenne Roxster.

To end on high note - don't forget the "Porsche engineered" SEAT Ibiza (yeah right!)

After my 911 24-hour test drive I really hope Porsche don't get a say in the design of Skodas. Utterly braindead ergonomics.

I do drive Porsches every day ! It's a bitch ,but hey i have to pay the bills ! Read into the history of Porsche and you will find that he was actually CZECH ! Born in Bohemia in fact.I love letting the bods at work know we are all playing with fast Skoda's

I drove a 911 C4S and after many years as my "poster car" - I was disappointed to admit I hated it :(

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To end on high note - don't forget the "Porsche engineered" SEAT Ibiza (yeah right!)

i had one of those

the favorite was helped by porche too wasnt it! and the rapid, and skoda had the 1st beetle style design then vw came up with a "simular" idea a few years later

the favorite was helped by porche too wasnt it! and the rapid, and skoda had the 1st beetle style design then vw came up with a "simular" idea a few years later

Porsche Design is reponsible for many things car and non car related.Tatra/Skoda were the company who had the Tatra 47 air cooled design,Porsche was working there at the time just before Mr H decided he wanted a peoples car...... oh and the rest of Europe ! VW paid out in the 60's i think for the theft but history sweeps that under a large carpet in VW/aircooled world !