Word: volkswagen
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Nobody can blame Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn for smiling this past week. VW has just turned the tables on would-be raider Porsche, placing Europe's biggest carmaker in the driver's seat for a planned merger with the much smaller and sportier firm. And while colleagues at rivals like Daimler, Fiat, General Motors and Peugeot are busy trying to survive the current economic storm, Winterkorn seems poised to throw VW into high gear...
There was no shortage of Barbie paraphernalia at the event - cases and cases of Barbie and friends, one Barbie impersonator, even a life-size hot pink Volkswagen Beetle, complete with a pop-out makeup trunk. "Barbie girls can't go anywhere without being able to get glam at a moment's notice," says Liz Grampp, director of marketing for Barbie at Mattel. Collectors even had a heated debate about how to best maintain the value of Barbie; some say a mint-condition Barbie should include the original plastic wrap and cardboard box, while others claim that Barbie can only...
...Mazda has 78 days of supply, according to estimates from dealers collected by J.D. Power & Associates. Honda, which traditionally has kept inventories lean, has a generous 64-day supply; Daimler's Mercedes-Benz and Smart units, also lean players, have a combined 63-day supply of vehicles. Even Volkswagen, which has been aggressively promoting its cars while other carmakers trimmed advertising, had a 78-day supply of autos during July, according to J.D. Power & Associates...
...Wiedeking, departing CEO of German sports car maker Porsche, as the victim of a public lynching by media, few feel bad for him. Wiedeking had a 17-year run at Porsche, the Stuttgart-based sports car icon which has just failed in its bid to take over motoring giant Volkswagen and will now be merged into the VW group. He took the job when Porsche was on the skids and transformed the company into a lean, profitable manufacturer while reestablishing Porsche as a leading global brand...
There is another lesson in Wiedeking's downfall, a lesson unlikely to be lost on automotive executives, investment bankers or even European Union bureaucrats: Volkswagen is not just any German company. Wiedeking lost his bid for control of VW when he lost the support of Ferdinand Piech, the VW supervisory board chairman who initially backed a Porsche takeover. Piech realized that Christian Wulff, the premier of the state of Lower Saxony, which holds a blocking stake in the carmaker, would not support a takeover. All Wulff had to do was use the so-called Volkswagen...