Car company Volkswagen will be merging with German sports car maker Porsche by 2011. VW will initially shell out 3.3 million euros to a buy a 42 per cent stake in Porsche. The firms’ supervisory boards announced that after the tie-up, VW’s Chief Executive Martin Winterkorn will head both Porsche and VW. The merger is a major victory for VW, and marks Porsche’s failure to buy the former. In the past year, Porsche bought a 51 per cent stake in VW, but fell short of the required 75 per cent for a take over. The merger comes after years of bitter wrangling between the two car companies.
Porsche now becomes the tenth carmaker to come under VW. The others include Audi, Skoda and Seat. VW said that it would maintain Porsche’s ‘independence’ after the merger, and would also preserve its own solid financial base.
