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Porsche has hit out at VW after the supercar maker claimed it had received an ultimatum over the potential merger of the two firms.

In a strongly worded statement, Porsche chairman Wolfgang Porsche accused VW of attempting to blackmail the firm into accepting a reworked merger plan.

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He said: “We trust that as in the past we are planning a successful future together with ...Read the full article

Excuse my ignorance, but what the hell is Porsche up to?! 

Unless I'm vastly mistaken, they are a relatively tiny sports car manufacturer which has got waaaaay out of its depth in financial shenanigans, is now hugely in debt because of its ego crisis attempt to buy the incomparably larger VW group, and is now getting mouthy because people have started to notice how stupid they've been and are refusing to lend them money.

Quite why selling themselves to Qatar is appealing to their grossly inflated sense of self-importance is beyond me.

Now for my truly stupid question - why not just sell the insanely over-ambitious stake they have in VW, cut their losses, and ditch their debt problem?!

I'm sure there are lots of good reasons I'm too daft to have understood.  But to summarise, all I can say to you sulky Porsche execs is - HA! 

S.

They both sound like a pair of squabbling sibblings.

Don't they know who we are? We're Porsche for heaven's sake!

SDR:

why not just sell the insanely over-ambitious stake they have in VW

Not a bad idea. VW is weathering the recession relatively well, so Porcsche might not lose too much money selling on half their shares, taking them back to owning around 20%.

Although im sure someone will explain why this cant happen. Hostile takeover threats possibly?

Will86:

They both sound like a pair of squabbling sibblings.

That's exactly the problem ... they are.

This has turned into a family row between Wolfgang Porsche and Herr Piech, who I believe are cousins.

Autocar:

Porsche has hit out at VW after the supercar maker claimed it had received an ultimatum over the potential merger of the two firms

Don't remember Porsche worrying over much about VW's feelings when they launched a hostile takeover, or from what we hear in the industry when they marched into VW's officies and demanded all information be made available to them "NOW" ("JETZT SOFORT" if Horse in on line) and started changes VW's product plans.

I think Porsche has been helping VW over the past years by slowly buying shares in the company. VW were having a few financial problem early 2000's and given the history between the 2 companies Porsche took a stake in the company to add some stability. The situation worsened however and to stop a hostile take-over from an outside company Porsche requested from their share-holders back in 2005 'acquisitions of third-Party Businesses' Which was given the green light. Porsche then went on to purchase the current 50% stake they hold. (side note) this happened the day before VW bought MAN who also own SCANIA. Porsche's investment was not only to help VW staying German but also to safe-guard their own technology which they share. (Cayenne / Toureg as an example). Looks like now VW wish to have their own identity back but don't have the capitol themselves to buy it back from Porsche. Porsche don't have the money either so enter the third-party. Maybe Porsche should sell their complete stake to a third party (FIAT) anyone? and go by a small niche brand who Porsche has a lot more things in common with. With the money they get from selling their stake in VW, Porsche could design a new platform for the sub-Compact/Compact market, compete against the Scirocco, A3, Passat and A4, not to mention what BMW and Mercedes have to offer.