Porsche Fires Wiedeking and Hrter, Merger With VW Near
The Porsche board kept busy all night. Porsche dismissed CEO Wendelin Wiedeking and CFO Holger Härter with immediate effect, Reuters reports. They were kicked out, wearing parachutes worth €50 million ($71million) for Wiedeking and €12.5 million ($18 million) for Härter. That was way below the sums discussed previously.
The unanimous decision is seen as a signal that the Piech and Porsche clans are ready to merge with Volkswagen, with financial backing from the Sheik of Qatar. As reported prevously, Wiedeking will be replaced by Michael Macht.
“With Wiedeking gone, it appears as certain that Volkswagen will take over Porsche step-by-step and will integrate Porsche as 10th brand into the VW portfolio,” Automobilwoche [sub] says. The derivative-dealing duo had racked-up debt of over €10b for Porsche. Today, the supervisory board of Volkswagen meets in Stuttgart. Details of the deal are expected after the meeting. The power over combined Volkswagen/Porsche will be with Ferdinand Piech and his protege Martin Winterkorn.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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@ Lorenzo: I believe Bertel mentioned Ferdinand Piech’s engineering background and his antipathy toward MBA’s. The above may be true, but at present I don't think there is a great, affordable driver's car in the VW lineup. The R32 is too soft and too pricey.
So this means that a very, very good manager is now available. I wonder if there are any car companies out there that can use someone like that...
"So this means that a very, very good manager is now available. I wonder if there are any car companies out there that can use someone like that…" I'm starting to wonder if there will be any car companies out there able to hire anyone at all in not too long. And the only ones left will likely chalk it up to their "superior" in house management. If Wiedeking will work for highly speculative stock, Tesla does look like company that could use someone whose "attention to detail and laser sharp marketing focus resulted in the best product lineup in recent automotive history."