#FerdinandPiech

A week after Volkswagen Group chairman Ferdinand Piëch quit his post, the company’s supervisory board will meet Monday to discuss finding a replacement.

Ferdinand Piëch isn’t Volkswagen’s chairman anymore, but he doesn’t want a couple of his relatives to replace him and his wife on the board, either.

While Chief Executive Martin Winterkorn wears bruises from the conflict, Ferdinand Piëch has paid the ultimate of price and resigned his chairmanship with immediate effect.

While the dust-up between chairman Ferdinand Piëch and CEO Martin Winterkorn lingers on, Volkswagen looks to take silver on the global sales podium in 2015.

VW Group CEO Martin Winterkorn gained a few key supporters in the leadership conflict between he and chairman Ferdinand Piëch.

Disparaging remarks uttered by Volkswagen chairman Ferdinand Piech have led to speculation that the legendary auto exec is positioning himself to oust VW’s current CEO, Martin Winterkorn, a one-time ally of Piech who has overseen substantial growth during his tenure.

Photo: DPA

Porsche Automobil Holding SE’s supervisory board members and cousins Ferdinand Piech and Wolfgang Porsche are being sued by seven hedge funds that are seeking 1.8 billion euros ($2.4 billion) in compensation over damages they claim to have suffered as a result of the Porsche holding group’s failed 2008 attempt to purchase the Volkswagen Group.

Ferdinand Piech, chairman of the Volkswagen Group, repeated his denial of a report last week in the German Handelsblatt newspaper that he would step down for health reasons in the next few months and be replaced by VW CEO Martin Winterkorn. Piech furthermore said that he will at least serve out the full term of his current contract, which runs into 2017, leaving open the possibility that he will continue to run the Volkswagen empire even longer. “I will stay for at least as long as my contract runs,” Piech told reporters at the Frankfurt Motor Show, “I’m feeling good.”

The C-Suites of two major auto makers are unlikely to change in the near future, despite rumors suggesting that both Ferdinand Piech and Alan Mulally are set to depart both VW and Ford respectively.

Not so fast…again

Though recent reports claim that VW Chairman Ferdinand Piech and Suzuki President Osamu Suzuki are involved in board level talks to resolve the differences in their on again off again relationship, at a news conference for quarterly earnings, Suzuki Executive Vice President Toshihiro Suzuki denied any such talks have taken place. According to Reuters, Suzuki claimed that “There have been various reports, but there absolutely are no such facts, so there is nothing I can talk about on this topic.”

Instagram, the popular photo sharing service, was bought by Facebook for $1 billion, despite not producing any tangible goods or generating revenue. Ducati is all but set to be purchased by Volkswagen for $1.12 billion, while producing tens of thousands of premium motorcycles sold across the globe ad fielding one of the most prestigious brands in the transportation industry.