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I wouldn't dump any $$ into VW or Porsche. I don't like the direction they're going in and already investing $$ BILLIONS into electric, which I'm not sure will pan out. I wouldn't put my money on it. What some of these companies think they can shove down our throats vs what people will actually spend their $$ on are two different things.
Look into the business side of the whole group, and the mystique of the Porsche brand gets soured quick. It's a complicated set up and the labor unions have a stranglehold on the company. There have been some great posts on RL here about the whole business side of it which explain it better than I can.
The easiest thing you can do is vote with your wallet.
Wallet Vote (reverse VW...hehe) is definitely the most powerful button we have..... and I opened my wallet for the last time for Porsche. 991.2 RS will be my last delivery from that brand. I quit while they are on top... :-)
Wendelin Wiediking ran Porsche from the 1990s until 2008. He saved Porsche from bankruptcy with the Boxster and 996 by changing how Porsche built cars (JIT). He developed the Cayenne and Panamera. He gave green light to the CGT although he killed the Le Mans racer the V10 was meant for. He also used Porsche profits to run a hedge fund designed to take over, repeat, take over VW. He came close and but ultimately failed when global stocks and and economies took a dive 2007. Why is this important? Porsche lost its most valuable asset, independence, when it was ultimately taken over by VW after much concern about who would rescue Porsche from the enormous hedge fund debt WWs failed takeover left behind. The 992 is the first 911 with more VW corporate influence than Porsche independence. The future of the 911 is in VWs court, not Porsche.
Didn't know about the planned takeover. Imagine if it had worked. We'd get a drift happy rear engine jetta, just to hook people on RWD for life.
I still think Peter Schutz is the greatest hero of Porsche.
Porsche seems to be losing its way with the 911 much like Apple is losing its way with the iPhone and its computers. Steve Jobs preached simplicity. Now, you need dongles to attach your iPhone to a new MacBook. And dongles to attach your earphones to your iPhone. So much for simplicity and "it just works." Porsche seem to be going down the same path, in car terms: The 992 is heavier than its predecessor, its interior and exterior are both unnecessarily busy and the nubbin, well, the nubbin is like a dongle on industrial grade steroids. A total engineering and design element fail. I am a huge PDK fan but no way, no how I would buy a 992 or any future iteration of 911 with the nubbin. I do use the gear shifter in manual mode but even if Porsche does insist on ridding the 911 of that useful function, at least make the gear shifter attractive. I had a Jaguar XK-R prior to entering the Porsche world. The gear shifter in that is superior to the nubbin. The round shifter goes up when the keys are in the ignition and goes down when exiting the car. If I can't have a gear shifter for shifting the PDK gears, I would take Jaguar's offering over the nubbin any day.
Wendelin Wiediking ran Porsche from the 1990s until 2008. He saved Porsche from bankruptcy with the Boxster and 996 by changing how Porsche built cars (JIT). He developed the Cayenne and Panamera. He gave green light to the CGT although he killed the Le Mans racer the V10 was meant for. He also used Porsche profits to run a hedge fund designed to take over, repeat, take over VW. He came close and but ultimately failed when global stocks and and economies took a dive 2007. Why is this important? Porsche lost its most valuable asset, independence, when it was ultimately taken over by VW after much concern about who would rescue Porsche from the enormous hedge fund debt WWs failed takeover left behind. The 992 is the first 911 with more VW corporate influence than Porsche independence. The future of the 911 is in VWs court, not Porsche.
spot on well said. Most forget the 911 was the only car Porsche had left to sell post 944, and 928’s.
Wendelin Wiediking ran Porsche from the 1990s until 2008. He saved Porsche from bankruptcy with the Boxster and 996 by changing how Porsche built cars (JIT). He developed the Cayenne and Panamera. He gave green light to the CGT although he killed the Le Mans racer the V10 was meant for. He also used Porsche profits to run a hedge fund designed to take over, repeat, take over VW. He came close and but ultimately failed when global stocks and and economies took a dive 2007. Why is this important? Porsche lost its most valuable asset, independence, when it was ultimately taken over by VW after much concern about who would rescue Porsche from the enormous hedge fund debt WWs failed takeover left behind. The 992 is the first 911 with more VW corporate influence than Porsche independence. The future of the 911 is in VWs court, not Porsche.
Great post. And should help folks "make sense" of the 992.
I recall the whole Wiediking takeover affair very differently, so I did a little Googling to refresh my memory.
"Wiedeking played a leading role in Porsche's attempted takeover of Volkswagen, which was ultimately unsuccessful although windfall gains from financial instruments linked to VW shares helped Wiedeking become the best paid executive in Germany in 2008. The bid left the Porsche holding company with debts of €10 billion, whilst Wiedeking walked away with a severance package of €50million. After his departure from Porsche Wiedeking was charged with market manipulation for his role in the takeover bid. The charges were dropped in July 2016 due to a too little chance of success."
IIRC, the bid had little chance of success given the concentration of VW shares in family hands.
I recall the whole Wiediking takeover affair very differently, so I did a little Googling to refresh my memory.
"Wiedeking played a leading role in Porsche's attempted takeover of Volkswagen, which was ultimately unsuccessful although windfall gains from financial instruments linked to VW shares helped Wiedeking become the best paid executive in Germany in 2008. The bid left the Porsche holding company with debts of €10 billion, whilst Wiedeking walked away with a severance package of €50million. After his departure from Porsche Wiedeking was charged with market manipulation for his role in the takeover bid. The charges were dropped in July 2016 due to a too little chance of success."
IIRC, the bid had little chance of success given the concentration of VW shares in family hands.
Someone should try it again....try till you succeed
Someone should try it again....try till you succeed
That will likely destroy shareholder wealth on both sides .
I don't know what the rules are in Germany but to force a shareholder sale in many jurisdictions you have to acceptance of 80% or 90% of shareholders. Thus if someone has a 10.1% or 20.1% stake e.g. blocking stake you're screwed.
If you want to guarantee success you need to put a cash bid on the table with a minimum of 30% premium to the weekly or even monthly VWAP, a cash and scrip bid is less favourable and a scrip only bid is least favourable. This is a very dangerous game to play where a "family" is involved or where large capital investments have been made by funds under sealed agreement.
In a nutshell most professional boards and professional ceos are terrible at this - why? because they are in effect paid managers with little skin in the game in the form of stock that they have actually purchased or options they have actually paid out to convert. Watch out for cash based payments as bonuses to CEOs (and boards) options with realistic strike prices focus the mind, likewise performance rights or options - good if priced appropriately.
02-09-2019, 11:03 AM
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