The Porsche and Piëch clans (rich families) pillage Volkswagen

The billionaire Porsche and Piëch families are to be fully bailed out—relieved of the gigantic losses arising from their disastrous speculation with VW shares, and instead rewarded with control of the largest portion of Volkswagen shares.

The most spectacular takeover coup in postwar German history has ended with the fantastic enrichment of a tiny family clan—all with the tacit support of the trade unions and the political establishment.

In its September edition, Managermagazin reports that Volkswagen will pay nearly €16 billion for the takeover of Porsche...In return, the Porsche and Piëch families are to receive 35 to 40 percent of the shares in the Volkswagen company. Although the resolution of the takeover did not correspond entirely to the two families’ plans, in the end they fulfilled their ambitions: securing a majority stake in Volkswagen, while plundering the company’s net worth, valued at €12 billion.

Their plan, secretly pursued since 2005, envisaged the takeover of VW by smaller sports-car manufacturer Porsche—which had 11,500 workers worldwide and sales of approximately 100,000 cars in 2008. In the same year, the much larger Volkswagen had 320,000 workers and sales of more than 6 million cars. With a so-called profit and control contract, which would required holding 75 percent of VW shares, Porsche sought to gain access to Volkswagen’s wealth in a hedge fund-type operation: the victim of the takeover, VW, would have had to reimburse the acquirer, Porsche, after the purchase...

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/sep2009/volk-s16.shtml

Please, enlighten me. Seriously, enlighten me.

Fucking worthless.