VW's Piech still trying to maintain iron grip, may oust Porsche boss
Ferdinand Piech has a well deserved reputation as something of a control freak. Piech is the chairman of the Volkswagen Group Supervisory Board, a position he took on after hitting the mandatory retirement age from his previous role as CEO a few years ago. Since then he has already ousted one hand picked successor (Bernd Pischetsrieder) who dared to try and exert too much authority over the company.The ongoing soap opera that is the relationship between Porsche and Volkswagen may soon claim another victim, Porsche CEO Wendelin Wiedeking. Porsche has so far accumulated 31-percent of VW's common stock, but it's not clear how far Porsche is willing to go with a takeover. Piech is the grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, who developed the original Beetle and whose son Ferry founded the sports car manufacturer. The Porsche and Piech (Ferry's sister Louise Piech) families maintain a controlling interest in the company, but it's also not clear how much of an active role they have played in the takeover. Piech apparently feels that Wiedeking has exhibited a bit too much autonomy over the company and that is just not acceptable. Piech evidently favors bringing in Pischetsrieder's former BMW sidekick Wolfgang Reitzle, although Volkswagen denies all of this. Volkswagen, of course, also denied that Pischetsrieder was about to be dismissed right up until the moment that we was shown the door. Fun times in Wolfsburg and Stuttgart.
[Source: Automotive News - Sub. req'd]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jason Bird 8:57AM (2/19/2008)
Hmmmm....let's see...
Porsche = Wildly Profitable
VW = Wildly Unreliable
Sounds like a sound business move to me. Piech continues to prove his business saavy.
Reply
Josiah 9:07AM (2/19/2008)
old men and their money ... it's sad really
Reply
duders 9:41AM (2/19/2008)
What a creepy picture. Do you see the fear in that mans eyes?
Reply
Mobius_1 9:51AM (2/19/2008)
So you get taken over and you oust their boss? Please someone explain how this works
Reply
Jared 11:08AM (2/19/2008)
Mobius, you clearly didn't read carefully.
The Piech and Porsche families control Porsche. In addition, Piech is Chairman of VW. Under Piech's direction, Porsche has purchased a controlling stake in VW. So Piech can oust the CEO of Porsche if he wants to -- he and his family control it.
Reply
JPA914 11:21AM (2/19/2008)
Piech is truly a brilliant man but I wouldn't want to be on the wrong side of him or even work for him.
Reply
sledge 11:35AM (2/19/2008)
@Jared: You are bang on.
The thing is Piech is in a position where he could probably easily engineer Wiedeking's ouster. However, I believe he would be a fool to do that given that Wiedeking was the one that saved Porsche from dire straits back in the early 90s and prevented them from getting taken over. As much as some people may detest the guy for branching out to the Boxster/Cayman and Cayenne, ultimately it is what made the company one of the most profitable in the world and one which can be safely independant. Piech and his family have made millions because of the guy and firing him would be a bit like killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.
On a side note, does anyone else find it amusing that Piech is Chairman of the Board at VW. One of the functions of the board is that they look after shareholder interests (so in a sense they work for the shareholders). Porsche is VW's largest shareholder and in turn Piech is a significant shareholder in Porsche. So in one giant incestuous loop, Piech works for Porsche who works for him. It reminds me of that joke where a guy finds out he is his own grandfather. On the up side it leads to situations such as the one in this article where he can fire his boss.
Reply
993C4S 11:54AM (2/19/2008)
Sledge
+1 on your comments. Well said.
ronnie schreiber 11:53AM (2/19/2008)
It shouldn't be surprising that the Porsche family wants to have its way. Ferdinand Porsche was perhaps the world's most amoral engineer. His only concern was getting his designs into production. Porsche worked for the most evil people in the world, and enslaved people to work in his factories.
Piech is the grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, who developed the original Beetle
The Porsche family won't acknowledge it and the VW company doesn't like to admit it, but a persuasive case can be made that Dr. Porsche and the Nazis stole the concept of the Beetle from the Standard Superior (platform frame, swing axles in the back, trailing arms in the front, 4 cylinder horizontally opposed engine mounted behind the back seat, simple aerodynamic body) designed by a Jewish engineer by the name of Josef Ganz and shown at the 1933 Berlin auto salon. Ganz even used the term "volkswagen" to describe his car, though the term may have already been generic by then. Ganz' patents were transfered by the Nazis to Tatra, owned by Volksdeutch in the Sudenten, and he was jailed by the Gestapo, eventually fleeing to Switzerland and later emigrating to Australia where he worked for Holden. Ironically, Tatra sued Porsche over patent infringements in the design of the KDF-Wagen/Beetle. Hitler's invasion of Czechoslovakia and takeover of the Tatra plants made that moot, but after the war VW did pay Tatra 3 million DM to settle the claims. Dr. Porsche acknowledged that he "looked over the shoulder" of Tatra designer Ledwinka, but Ganz' contribution was ignored.
Details:
http://www.ganz-volkswagen.org/index.htm
http://www.schouwer-online.de/technik/bungartz.htm
Reply
ronnie schreiber 11:55AM (2/19/2008)
"Piech is the grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, who developed the original Beetle"
Should have been in quotes.
Sam Abuelsamid 12:01PM (2/19/2008)
Perhaps I should have used quotes or some other form of emphasis for that statement. I did specifically choose the word developed rather than designed because of the controversy. Regardless of who came up with the original concept, Porsche was the one who brought it to production and my wording was intended to imply that.
ronnie schreiber 1:07PM (2/19/2008)
Sam, I didn't mean that you should have used quotes. I meant that I should have used quotes when quoting your statement. I tried using html italic tags but they didn't work and there's no preview function here.
Your use of the word "developed" is accurate. Like I said, Dr. Porsche and VW acknowledged that he borrowed ideas from Tatra's Ledwinka. If you looked at a photo of the chassis of the T97 http://www.tatra.demon.nl/cars_history_T97.htm
you'd think it was an early Beetle platform. Also, the T97 used an air-cooled OHC 4 cyl boxer mounted behind the rear axle. If I'm not mistaken, it was the first engine of that type used in a car.
So there's no question that Dr. Porsche used ideas from Tatra. He and Ledwinka would often discuss their designs in the early and mid 1930s. The question is how much did Tatra and Porsche use from Ganz? The T97 was first displayed in 1936, three years after Ganz' Standard Superior was offered for sale. It's interesting to note that the Tatras and Dr. Porsche's rear engined designs were notable for their tricky handling due to heavy weight bias in the back, while the Standard Superior used a mid-engine configuration, with the engine in front of the rear axle. So you can't say that it was Ganz who originally "designed" or "invented" the Beetle since the configurations aren't exactly the same.
Porsche designed the KDF-wagen based on his own concepts and those he borrowed (or stole) from others.
porschedevotee 1:37PM (2/19/2008)
Non sequitur: sweet avatar picture! Tesla FTW :)
GTX141 12:37PM (2/19/2008)
Its simply amazes me to no end how that now matter how piss-poor Peich runs his empire (Phaeton, trying to take VW upscale, firing Bernhard and Peaches), he constantly gets away with it.
Is the the only male in all of Germany with a set of balls? Sure seems like it.
Reply
chrisdavis 4:22PM (2/19/2008)
Ironic Tesla avatar because I was reminded of the inventor Nikola Tesla while reading the post about Ganz.