Wendelin Wiedeking, every mention

Porsche (with Doug DeMuro) · Acquired Jun 27, 2023 · 29 mentions

• ▶ 1:34:17 David Rosenthal It was a Vita King who comes in in a minute who, uh,
• ▶ 1:50:24 David Rosenthal So in 1993, a guy named Wendelin Wiedeking gets appointed as the CEO.
• ▶ 1:52:22 David Rosenthal No, it's not like Guida King was like,
• ▶ 1:54:25 Doug DeMuro And I think Wittekind's thought was the, the entry level Porsche has always been looked at as a second class citizen, like, like his, like Furman literally said, which was true.
• ▶ 1:56:26 David Rosenthal So, Vita King has this awesome quote about the
• ▶ 1:56:47 David Rosenthal I feel like Vita King and Don Valentine of Sequoia Capital would be like brothers in arms here.
• ▶ 1:56:59 David Rosenthal So Vita King, like, I don't know how much this was his thinking all along, or that he was just emboldened by the success of the Boxster.
• ▶ 2:08:14 David Rosenthal So on the back of this, like, incredibly bold plan and turnaround and success by Wittekig, I mean, he becomes a legend and Porsche goes from death's door, less than four hundred million euro market cap when he takes over to
• ▶ 2:09:35 David Rosenthal Even if you had told a person in 1993, hey, this guy's coming in, he's gonna kill the entry-level stuff, go back to doing entry-level stuff, and then do an SUV.
• ▶ 2:09:50 Doug DeMuro Especially because he was the fourth CEO or whatever.
• ▶ 2:10:29 David Rosenthal So the final sort of chapter to the Vita King era on the product production side was the Panamera.
• ▶ 2:12:43 David Rosenthal At this point, under Vita King, Porsche is doing everything they possibly can to reinvest in new models,
• ▶ 2:13:06 David Rosenthal There were rumors circulating in the auto industry that Volkswagen had their eye on Vita King, and they were looking to recruit him to be the successor to Ferdinand Pietsch.
• ▶ 2:13:33 David Rosenthal I believe in the same year that Vita King became CEO of Porsche in 1993.
• ▶ 2:13:46 David Rosenthal Whether it's true or not, I'm sure Vita King gets rumors of it.
• ▶ 2:13:49 David Rosenthal VD King's really, you know, kind of feeling himself here at Porsche, right?
• ▶ 2:15:25 David Rosenthal So, I believe, certainly, certainly to the public, and probably also to the families, Vita King positions this as, like,
• ▶ 2:15:54 David Rosenthal At this point, Vita King and Porsche's CFO joins the Volkswagen board, and then they keep buying shares, but using another patented Bernard Arnault technique, they do it mostly using various derivatives and options contracts.
• ▶ 2:17:35 David Rosenthal In 2007, Wittgen creates a new separately publicly traded holding company for the family's ownership of
• ▶ 2:18:08 David Rosenthal Vita King starts loading up the holding company with debt, with cheap debt in 2007.
• ▶ 2:18:42 David Rosenthal So he, he clearly, he was trying to recruit Vita King too.
• ▶ 2:20:05 David Rosenthal Which this is, you know, this is the Black Swan event that Vita King couldn't have predicted.
• ▶ 2:20:37 David Rosenthal So you would think that this is like the best thing that's ever happened to Porsche and Vita King.
• ▶ 2:21:02 David Rosenthal This is the undoing of Porsche and Vita King because they've got this debt.
• ▶ 2:22:23 David Rosenthal This is when he turns on Vita King.
• ▶ 2:23:50 Ben Gilbert This is literally Ferdinand saying to Vita King, if you come at the king, you best not miss.
• ▶ 2:24:12 David Rosenthal Within a few months, by January, 2009, Vita King is gone as CEO of Porsche.
• ▶ 2:43:09 David Rosenthal I guess Vita King was right.
• ▶ 3:20:32 Doug DeMuro Maybe Vita King himself.