Old timers at Dealbreaker will remember with fondness the days when Volkswagen briefly became the largest company by market-cap in the world, and when it became clear to a much wider audience that Porsche made more money from their barbarian-like, hedge fund behavior* than that whole selling cars thing.
You might also remember that Porsche has been lusting, in the German sense, after Volkswagen, for a long time.
Now this:
Porsche Automobil Holding SE and Volkswagen AG, two of the storied names in Germany’s car-making history, said Wednesday they plan to merge their operations, creating an integrated auto giant with 10 independent brands, including Porsche’s coveted sports-car operations.
Following a meeting of Porsche’s owner families – Porsche and Piech – the company said in a statement that a task force is set to establish within the next four weeks the basis for a merged company.
Porsche said the families Wednesday discussed proposals laid out by Porsche’s and Volkswagen’s executive boards, which include capital measures, and agreed that an integrated car-manufacturing group should be forged.
A person familiar with the situation said the current plan includes a possible capital increase by around EUR5 billion to reduce Porsche’s debts, which fueled speculation about its financial situation in recent weeks.
“In the final structure, 10 brands shall stand below an integrative leading company alongside each other, whereby the independence of all brands and explicitly also of Porsche shall be ensured,” the Stuttgart-based auto maker said.
Porsche wants, Porsche gets. No? Well, not exactly. The line that seems to be coming out is that famous “mergers of equals” play. You know, like Daimler-Chrysler? But, now even Lower Saxony (which holds a veto right) looks ready to stand aside. The times they are a changing. We’ll see who is left standing.
* “To crush your financial enemies. See der capital driven before you. Hear the lamentations of dee regulatory relations women.”
Porsche, Volkswagen Seek To Merge Operations [The Wall Street Journal]
WHERE THE F IS THE BHO PORTFOLIO UPDATE? Is Karl Rove the editior here now? WTF??
Release the Lycans
@1
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=^GSPC
stfu/gtfo
@ EP
I’ll set the over/under on how long it takes this inevitable clusterf*ck to go to sh!t at 36 months. Who wants some action?
You people all complained that the BHO Portfolio was a partisan hackjob. So we killed it while BHO was way ahead.
Now you people all complain that we killed it. What do we have to do, put up a poll?
@EP – Yes.
It’s been a while since we’ve been given a good poll. Throw one up there.
-2StopShop
Just publish the numbers and ignore the malcontents.
Dead Guy From Delaware
@ Anal_yst – I take the under. And thank you, send the haters back to yahoo finance.
EP, give the haters the inception date of the BHO-folio and directions to export the data from YF and inform them of the following excel formula (it’s a doozy):
=(ending price/starting price)-1
There is no reason to continue tracking the S&P on this site…
Porsche = World’s most profitable Aryan HF.
(That’s joke never gets old, NEVER)
I drive a Cayman. Couldn’t be happier with it.
@EP, the bigger question is are you playing around with der capital or did you mean Das Kapital? Meh, I am probably one of those irony impaired posters.
May I say though, that at much as I admire German engineering and as many times as my car dealer throws one of these my way as a loaner, I will never buy one of these Nazi inspired/supported/engineered vehicles ever, even though I’ve been tempted.
And I’m not even Jewish. I guess I read “The Diary of Ann Frank” at a too impressionable age. I do tend to buy Euro but I avoid these cars because the same GD families have run them for nearly 100 years. VW? NFW.
The height of my ire comes from seeing a Jew in any German manufactured car that was made by any company that existed in 1910-1945 that is still owned by the same GD famlies.
I did not intend to invoke Godwin’s Law on this commentary thread. My sincere apologies, but this just chaps my hide.
Guest @9.
Haaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaahaa.
Are you in a back office somewhere? There are so many better cars you could get for $60k. Are you really really really proud that you make less than $100k per year? BwahhhaahhhaAAAaaahhhaaa. Sorry for the snorts in there, but good job man! That’s really impressive for a back office lifer or a first year trainee.
@10 I always wondered about this too.
Ferdinand Porsche was imprisoned France for being a Nazi, but Ralph Lauren and Jerry Seinfeld are both avid collectors.
There’s much debate re: whether Porsche was actually a Nazi, but I’m not sure I’d be such an enthusiast if I was Jewish (I’ll only buy German cars).
Btw, great pic EP. Did you know that the Meyers Manx is actually a modified VW?
@6= ass wipe.
The Other Guy from Delaware
@13=cute when pissed
The Gay Guy from Delaware
Porsche Caymans are for fags.
@14
Thanks for covering.
@13
I agree that DGFD wipes his ass after using the toilet. I really appreciate you pointing that out.
The Other Dead Guy From Delaware
DGFD once visited a Porsche dealer where he tried to drive a 911. DGFD was dismayed to find that he was too tall and couldn’t drive the thing comfortably.
DGFD now knows that people that drive these cars are of diminished stature – in a manner of speaking.
Dead Guy From Delaware
EP
That is good.
@10, @12 You are both morons.
Men who drive Porsches are known to be overcompensating for something — just look at Bill Gates.
What a loser.
I like that VW had the highest market cap in the world…ya know, since market cap is just last historical trade price times the number of shares. Shares aren’t valued at the margin or anything.