I’m absolutely lost with the recent turn of events at Porsche, Wendelin Wiedeking the CEO for the past 16 years just resigned. I know that happens all the time but just 6 months ago he was hailed as the “European Businessman of the Year” by Fortune Magazine. And if we go further back to October 2008, he was the guy that ran a hedge fund that just happened to make cars. In October, he was busy executing his plans to takeover VW and in the process body slammed some major hedge funds like Marshall Wace, SAC Capital and Och Ziff.
So what happened? It appears his David and Goliath strategy to take over the massive VW group meant Porsche had to rack up some serious debt – USD 10 billion. It all ended badly as now VW is going to takeover Porsche and hence the CEO was shown the door fired with a fat golden parachute.
The VW Group is not just VW but a host of name brands most people can recognize:
- Audi
- Bentley Motors
- Bugatti
- Lamborghini
- Porsche
- SEAT
- Scania
- Skoda
- VW
No matter what happens with the management team, the 911 is still an amazing car. The new Panamera will take some getting used to, it looks like a luge.
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