Porsche Says Taking Over VW Was About Preserving The Future

Largely overlooked in the Detroit Big Three death watch/three-ring circus has been one of the most incredible examples of clever stock trading in modern history. And it happened at a car company.

Last month, Porsche surprised the world by announcing it had acquired a nearly 43% stake in Volkswagen with an option to buy 32% more. Without anybody noticing, wee little Porsche, maker of scarcely 100,000 cars a year, had cornered a 75% position in VW, which cranks out nearly 6 million vehicles.

Porsche's acquisition of the VW stake isn't about the money. Apparently it's about saving Porsche. "Our VW strategy is part of protecting Porsche," Berning said. "It is our guarantee that Porsche will remain Porsche."



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veyron1001 - 11/25/2008 4:26:40 PM

0 Boost

You mean intelligent investment?

Agent009 - 11/26/2008 8:26:06 AM

+1 Boost

Kaner- No matter what you believe. Porsche actually did something to preserve itself. It is still extremely profitable and not asking ANYBODY for a handout.

The management plain and simple believes in making it on their own. So far the have been the only ones to buck the economic trend.

Some people call it luck. I call it proper planning.

993Turbo - 11/26/2008 8:32:25 AM

+1 Boost

It's not just that. Despite the fact that Porsche sports cars have relatively low emissions for their power output, they need a VW mix to meet the CAFE standards in the U.S. or they would have to pay big penalties. U.S. is their bread and butter market.

Kaner, what's wrong with bashing the big three? They are almost out of business in case you haven't read the paper. Forget the cars for a minute, none of them can afford their own pension plans.