Re: Audi future plans!

[ScharfR@aol.com]

In a string of messages, a variety of listers hve compiled the following
thread:

<<< I don't have a current copy of "Wer gehoert zu Wem" - do any of our
       German members?  Doesn't VAG already own a lump of Porsche? >>>
  
<<  Nope, but Ferdinand does.  >>
 
 < *oops* If this is true, sorry about the mis information that I gave to a
     couple of listers when I told them that Volks. AG owned both Audi and
     Porsche. >

To set it straight, "VWAG" owns approximately 99% of the outstanding shares
of what is now called "Audi AG."  The approx. 1% of Audi AG shares in
non-VWAG hands is a legacy of the stubborn investors who refused to sell
their shares during VWAG's purchase of Auto Union.

"Dr. Ing. h. c. F. Porsche AG" is an independant company, owned by individual
and institutional investors (non-voting shares) and by the eight or so
descendants of the Porsche and Piech families (voting shares). One of those
family members happens to be Dr. Ferdinand Piech, Chairman of the Board of
VWAG. (this would probably spark thoughts of a conflict of interest in places
like the U.S., but it seems to work for the parties involved.)

So, one last time, there is no ownership tie between VWAG and Porsche, or
between Audi and Porsche.  Many U.S. list members (and actual people as well)
may have become confused because Volkswagen of America was, for some time,
the official  importer of Porsche in the U.S.  For marketing reasons, VWoA
chose to "marry" the Porsche distribution with the distribution of Audi
products in a dealer/franchise package that was known and marketed as
Porsche+Audi.  Since it was in front of the public in that guise for a couple
of decades, it may have stuck in the minds of a few as more than the marketng
relationship (marriage of convenience?) that it was.