Volkswagen Buys Porsche. Will it be Another Auto Union?
In an interesting twist of fate, Porsche this year tried to buy Volkswagen but the reverse happened and Porsche's CEO found himself out of a job. At a special meeting of the Volkswagen supervisory board last Thursday, an agreement was approved that will ultimately lead to assimilation for Porsche. Stranger still, Porsche will sell its 20 percent share option in VW to the Emirate of Qatar. A complex buying and trading of shares will then result in Volkswagen and Porsche merging into a single company by late 2011, with current VW CEO Martin Winterkorn at the helm. But the story is going around that the newly formed company will be named named Auto Union. The original Auto Union itself was the result of a merger. Several brands were included: Audi, Horch, DKW, Wanderer and eventually, NSU. Its familiar four-ring logo can still be seen on contemporary Audis. The company was well-known for its monster all-wheel-drive racers of the 1930s, designed by Professor Porsche.
Well, folks, this writer was once assistant sales promotion director of Volkswagen Canada at a time when Porsche couldn't afford its own distribution system. The two companies were very close, in part because of Professor Porsche's participation in the design of the Volkswagen Beetle. My boss, Dr. Helmut Albrecht, had been involved with the Auto Union race team just before the war and so I was familiar with the name and the racing history. For reasons of nostalgia and emotion, I hope the rumour turns out to be true. The new Auto Union: audi, Porsche, Volkswagen. Has a nice "ring" to it, wouldn't you say?
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