As we all know, it is a giant enterprise in the automobile industry in the world today, with 12 well-known automobile brands, and its sales volume ranked among the top three in the world in 2010. Behind all these shining titles, audi ag has experienced numerous interests struggles and countless money baptisms. If these Volkswagen-owned car brands are like brave soldiers, then the Volkswagen Group is undoubtedly the "commander in chief" who is strategizing and winning thousands of miles away. Today, this article will let the editor take you into the Volkswagen family, travel to that era, feel the interests you come and go together, spend money like water, and count the anecdotes of Volkswagen Group and its brands for you.
● Background introduction of audi ag.
Audi ag was founded in 1937, and the company is headquartered in Wolfsburg, Germany, mainly engaged in automobile manufacturing and sales. At present, Volkswagen Group is the largest enterprise in Germany, and in 2010, it became the world’s largest car company with the largest sales volume, ranking 12th among the world’s top 500 companies. Volkswagen has factories in many countries around the world, and currently employs more than 500,000 people.
● The top 12 brands of German audi ag:
I believe that many netizens are familiar with the background of Volkswagen. However, before starting this article, please allow me to say one more word. Let’s first get to know the 12 brands owned by audi ag, namely: Volkswagen,,,,,, Scania, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicle,, MAN and the newly acquired motorcycle brand Ducati. The editor of this article will start with the brand battle between Volkswagen and Porsche, and give you a brief introduction of five brands acquired by Volkswagen and their stories with Volkswagen.
● This is the same root, why is it too urgent to fry! -Volkswagen Porsche’s 80-year-old feud.
For example, if I want to describe the relationship between Volkswagen and Porsche, I really can only think of the words "What’s the hurry?". After more than 80 years of feud and entanglement, the two giant brands have experienced countless undercurrent struggles for interests, and finally the "war" has come to an end temporarily after Volkswagen’s counterattack. For the story between them, let’s start from the beginning and tell you in detail the grievances between Volkswagen and Porsche.
Speaking of the relationship between Volkswagen and Porsche, we have to mention an old man, that is, ferdinand porsche, the founder of Porsche and Volkswagen. The founding of Volkswagen was also closely related to Adolf Hitler, the leader of Nazi organization in Germany at that time. It was Hitler’s idea of producing a Volkswagen that only sold 990 marks in 1936 that made the world’s leading car established today. At that time, ferdinand porsche was a famous German automobile designer. He was ordered to lead a group of laborers to start the production of this kind of cheap car, and in 1937, he established "Gesellschaft zur Vorbereitung des Deutsches Volkswagen MBH" (Volkswagen Company).
At this point, you may feel strange. Isn’t this ferdinand porsche the founder of Porsche? How did you get involved with the public again? Indeed, ferdinand porsche established the Porsche brand as early as 1931. At that time, Volkswagen was just a cheap car brand that he was "ordered to build" according to the requirements of Hitler’s Nazi government. It can be said that since the day Volkswagen was established, it was destined to be inextricably linked with Porsche.
Let’s take a look at some genealogies of the Porsche family, and we will know how close Porsche is to the Volkswagen family. First of all, ferdinand porsche’s son Ferry Porsche and grandson Wolfgang Porsche have been running Porsche Automobile Company. Wolfgang Porsche is still the owner of Porsche Automobile, while his daughter Louis Piech and grandson ferdinand piech are in charge of Volkswagen. ferdinand porsche gave 62% of the shares of these two companies to his son Ferry Porsche before his death, and the remaining 38% was owned by his daughter Louis Piech. This is self-evident.
It stands to reason that no matter how the equity is distributed, Porsche and Piech, who are both the heads of automobile companies and the same family, should have lived in peace. Moreover, the market positioning of Porsche and Volkswagen is quite different, and the direct competition relationship is very small. However, the aggressive personality of ferdinand porsche’s descendants determines that there will be a "blood shed" between Volkswagen and Porsche.
In the early days of Volkswagen’s establishment, the two companies used to be "brother enterprises" of mutual benefit and exchange of needed goods. Porsche Model 64 produced in 1938 used many spare parts from Volkswagen. In 1969, Volkswagen and Porsche jointly launched VW-Porsche914 and 914-6 models, which were named 914 because this model was equipped with a four-cylinder from Volkswagen, while 914-6 was equipped with a six-cylinder engine from Porsche, showing the close relationship between Volkswagen and Porsche.
However, the good times didn’t last long. With the death of ferdinand porsche and the continuous development of Volkswagen, Porsche has been completely surpassed by Volkswagen in terms of its share of the global automobile market and actual book revenue, and this momentum has quickly become a reality. Some "jealous" Wolfgang Porsche set his eyes on his "brothers" in the late 1990s.
In 2004, the Porsche family, whose eyes were locked on Volkswagen, finally ushered in the best acquisition opportunity in theory. In this year, Volkswagen sold a large number of shares because of poor management and high production costs, and went to the brink of bankruptcy. According to statistics, the average wage of Volkswagen’s workers was the highest in Germany, but the production efficiency was the lowest. More than 40% of the factories closed down, and the economy was even more unable to make ends meet.
Previously, the German government issued a law to prevent audi ag from being acquired by overseas investors, which expressly stipulated that when it comes to major issues such as company acquisition, it needs more than 80% of the support votes to pass, which means that Saxony will always have the veto power over public acquisition, and it is impossible for other companies to intervene in the public. This law is called "The Law of the People", and there are still many controversies today because of its strong local protectionism.
Although the "Volkswagen Law" has blocked it, the Porsche family will never miss this excellent opportunity. First, they quietly acquired the shares of Volkswagen in the secondary market. By the first half of 2005, Porsche had held nearly 20% of the shares in audi ag. However, Porsche’s erosion of Volkswagen’s shares did not attract people’s attention during this period. Until October 7, 2005, Porsche suddenly announced that it would buy 8.27% of Volkswagen’s shares from institutional investors. At this time, Porsche has held 27.4% of Volkswagen’s shares, becoming the largest shareholder of Volkswagen in the world. Since then, Porsche has increased its shareholding in Volkswagen to 31% in March 2007. However, due to the existence of the Volkswagen Law, Porsche spokesman Bowman made it clear that this action is only a simple increase, and there is no intention of any acquisition.
At this time, Porsche has become the heart of Si Mazhao, and everyone knows that the so-called "no acquisition intention" is just an excuse to hide the ear. In November 2007, the European Court of Justice proposed to abolish the Volkswagen Law. Porsche welcomed it and said that there was no plan to increase its shareholding. However, this duplicity only lasted for half a year. By 2009, the Porsche family had quietly increased its shareholding in Volkswagen to more than 50%.
Subsequently, Porsche applied for anti-monopoly investigation. On July 23, 2008, the European Commission approved Porsche to acquire Volkswagen. By the beginning of 2009, Porsche announced at its headquarters in Stuttgart that it had held 50.76% of the ordinary shares of Volkswagen. At this point, I have to mention Porsche’s wishful thinking: if the acquisition is successful, Porsche can merge Volkswagen’s books, use Volkswagen’s funds or even sell Volkswagen’s assets by holding more than 50% of Volkswagen’s shares, and indirectly increase Porsche’s profits to pay off debts. Unfortunately, Porsche’s elaborate wishful thinking did not succeed. The acquisition was considered as a "hostile acquisition" by the German government and Volkswagen, and the Volkswagen Law still had a protective effect on Volkswagen. Therefore, Porsche’s acquisition of Volkswagen finally failed. However, this failure did not dispel Porsche’s idea of acquiring Volkswagen. The careerist is still eyeing Volkswagen.
However, it didn’t take long for us to find out that this "beast" was actually a "paper tiger" that was weak in the outside. After April 2009, the impact of the world financial turmoil deepened. At this time, Porsche’s debt "high platform" built by the previous crazy acquisition was crumbling, with a total debt of 10 billion euros. Banks also tightened their money and ignored Porsche’s various "applications". At this time, Porsche not only failed in its wishful thinking, but also internally.
While Porsche suffered the consequences of its aggressive acquisition, Volkswagen controlled its costs from 2007 to 2009, making a successful profit of more than 4 billion euros, and in 2009, it has quietly climbed to the second largest automobile manufacturer in the world.
At this time, the Piech family thought it was time to implement their plan. In mid-2009, audi ag, led by the Piech family, decided to buy Porsche Automobile Company. Faced with the blow of "brothers", Porsche Company at this time seemed to be at a loss. On July 22 of that year, Volkswagen officially agreed to buy Porsche Automobile by investing 5 billion euros. However, it was not so easy to eat Porsche in one bite. In 2009, Volkswagen spent 3.9 billion euros to acquire 49.9% of Porsche’s shares in its holding company, and the remaining 50.1% of the shares had to be purchased from Porsche Europe joint-stock company before it could fully acquire Porsche cars.
After being acquired by Volkswagen, Porsche’s business situation has been greatly reversed and it is booming. Volkswagen only provides financial support and does not interfere in the design, production and sales of its models, which makes Porsche cars like a duck to water, with frequent masterpieces, and quickly improves its market share. Volkswagen’s "Tai Ji Chuan" is really good.
After nearly three years of close cooperation with Porsche, Volkswagen Group officially announced on July 4 this year that it will continue to invest 4.46 billion euros to acquire the remaining shares held by Porsche Europe AG. If the process goes smoothly, Volkswagen will own 100% shares of Porsche after this capital injection. However, this matter has not been implemented until now, and it seems that it will take time to completely solve the feud between Volkswagen and Porsche.
Summary:
The 80-year feud between Volkswagen and Porsche came to an end with the overall victory of the Piech family. In the last 20 years, we have seen the hysteria of Porsche and the public’s fearlessness in times of crisis. Due to the various interventions of the Volkswagen Law, Porsche not only failed in its wishful thinking, but also ended up being "acquired". In addition, the intrigue and competition for interests among the wealthy families also left us a deep impression. The temptation of rights and the bursting of desires once made Porsche lose its direction, while the public was supercilious and tepid in the whole incident, which not only made them get away with it, but also "helped the brothers" at a critical moment to get Porsche out of trouble and get back on track. It must be said that this is what brothers should have.
