How Porsche Owns Volkswagen and Volkswagen Owns Porsche

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  • Опубліковано 30 лип 2023
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    Video written by Ben Doyle
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КОМЕНТАРІ • 1,3 тис.

  • @ricequackers
    @ricequackers 10 місяців тому +5562

    In the late 2000s, Porsche was described as "a hedge fund that just happens to make sports cars on the side". This is exactly why. 😁

    • @satakrionkryptomortis
      @satakrionkryptomortis 10 місяців тому +93

      for the owner family thats still true to the letter

    • @estenderyt
      @estenderyt 10 місяців тому +28

      in the late 2000s? so like, 2990s?

    • @jbird4478
      @jbird4478 10 місяців тому +146

      ​@@estenderyt No, the 2000s always refers to a decade because reasons.

    • @SissypheanCatboy
      @SissypheanCatboy 10 місяців тому +94

      ​​@@jbird4478because calling it the '00s looks stupid and also could mean 1900-1909

    • @estenderyt
      @estenderyt 10 місяців тому +1

      @@jbird4478 k

  • @TheMrFabian1
    @TheMrFabian1 10 місяців тому +4522

    The story how Volkswagen became the most valuable company is actually even better. Volkswagen was not very well off at the time due to the financial crisis and short-sellers were all over it. At that time they had open positions for 12% of all common stock. However, Porsche had bought so many shares, that only 6% of shares were freefloat, thus creating a giant short-squeeze, making Volkswagen the original rich-people's gamestop.

    • @sean9163
      @sean9163 10 місяців тому +35

      Volkswagen is not the "most" valuable company, it is the "more" valuable company :) good story though

    • @Nderak
      @Nderak 10 місяців тому

      fuck all shorts

    • @xander1052
      @xander1052 10 місяців тому +60

      @@sean9163 didn't know that volkswagen was a country instead of a company

    • @Dangermad
      @Dangermad 10 місяців тому +286

      ​​@@sean9163no... you're just confidently incorrect. Volkswagen was literally the most valuable company in the world for a short period of time, you'd know that if you paid attention to the video instead of correcting people in the comments.

    • @LMacNeill
      @LMacNeill 10 місяців тому +44

      @@sean9163 If there were only two companies in the world, you would be correct. Last time I checked, though, there are at least three companies being publicly traded...

  • @uq0de
    @uq0de 10 місяців тому +1188

    did you just pronounce "porsh" wrong and called the beetle extremely ugly in one video?
    -me, a furious german

    • @stefthepef
      @stefthepef 10 місяців тому +105

      I believe he did. I was even willing to let the pronunciation slide until he besmirched the cute lil' Beetle.
      - Me, also deeply offended about it

    • @muadddib
      @muadddib 10 місяців тому +20

      Yes, that one hurt :(

    • @megamaser
      @megamaser 10 місяців тому +4

      It hurts because it's true.

    • @highqualityorangejuice420
      @highqualityorangejuice420 10 місяців тому +28

      ​@megamaser that's why you're adopted

    • @vanwesthuizen7427
      @vanwesthuizen7427 10 місяців тому +5

      Fühl ich.

  • @Toast4tw
    @Toast4tw 10 місяців тому +662

    Fun fact:
    they just play this video on repeat in Guantanamo bay for any german speakers until they just can't take the pronunciation anymore.

    • @friedrichrubinstein2346
      @friedrichrubinstein2346 10 місяців тому +65

      It really was painful. I have never seen an E treated so badly as the one in Porsche.

    • @christophsaviation2045
      @christophsaviation2045 10 місяців тому +13

      I was already defenestrating my PC after listening to the video once.

    • @MaticTheProto
      @MaticTheProto 8 місяців тому +11

      I love poursh and wolkswagn 🥰🇩🇪

    • @rennanizarchi7441
      @rennanizarchi7441 4 місяці тому

      Porshy

    • @EEEEEEEE
      @EEEEEEEE Місяць тому +1

      E‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎

  • @signbear999
    @signbear999 10 місяців тому +910

    As the owner of a Porsche, I can confirm my car owns me.

    • @stevensarson482
      @stevensarson482 10 місяців тому +11

      Yes absolutely. It’s the only thing I have ever paid for that still isn’t mine ( and I don’t mean a credit agreement). The only worthwhile accessory for a 911 would be a forcefield.

    • @BMW_Z4idiot
      @BMW_Z4idiot 10 місяців тому +3

      YOU CAR'S ENGINE IS ON THE WRONG SIDE

    • @adamuk73
      @adamuk73 10 місяців тому +4

      It owns your wallet, that's for sure.

    • @graphite718
      @graphite718 10 місяців тому

      I felt this.

    • @FisicaFacil.
      @FisicaFacil. 10 місяців тому +4

      @@BMW_Z4idiot Weight balance makes the 911 one of the best production cars in history, and by far the most succesfull race car

  • @Finkelfunk
    @Finkelfunk 10 місяців тому +2057

    We actually talked through this in our economics class in uni last year. Basically this was an ingenious strategy by the Porsche/Piech family to take control over the biggest car manufacturer in the world despite not even being able to afford it. Our professor actually ranted about how stupid economics journalists were when they wrote articles about how "Volkswagen bought Porsche because they went bankrupt and Volkswagen now controls them".

    • @tatianaes3354
      @tatianaes3354 10 місяців тому

      BTW, was not Piech family also patented Nazis just as Porsche himself?
      Funny how fake the Western German denazification was, despite the country brainwashing its children with an opposite claim in the schools.
      In reality, things were so bad that Nazis got to helm NATO and found the German secrete police, responsible for cleansing the country from communists (just as Nazis did in the 1930s).

    • @haehlenlinus
      @haehlenlinus 10 місяців тому +43

      He likes Porsches.

    • @centenarigamer
      @centenarigamer 10 місяців тому +5

      Would you please elaborate a bit more on that? Sounds really interesting.

    • @bachpham6862
      @bachpham6862 10 місяців тому +181

      @@centenarigamer As explained by the video: Porsche owns the Porsche holding company which controls Porsche the car manufacturer. Now, Porsche wants to buy up Volkswagen, but he doesn't have cash to do so, so he sold Porsche car manufacturer to Volkswagen for cash. Then he use the cash to buy up a controlling stake in Volkswagen so Porsche now owns Volkswagen which owns Porsche manufacturing.
      This is effectively a Merger & Acquisition between both companies and corporate restructuring. The result would have been the same had Volkswagen sold itself cheaply to Porsche, and Porsche give the Volkswagen's management control of Porsche cars.

    • @Finkelfunk
      @Finkelfunk 10 місяців тому +24

      @@centenarigamer Basically what bachpham said. I'm a little fuzzy on the details as well, but they basically followed the strategy described in the video. There's several other scandals surrounding VW well, so many in fact he dedicated an entire lecture just to those. Was one of the funniest things I've witnessed thus far.
      There's corruption like the Lopez-affaire where a man by the same name first almost bankrupted Opel and General Motors with the way he managed acquisition of resources before swapping over to VW.
      Another scandal worth mentioning was the scandal surrounding the workers union representative of VW, "Klaus" and the Chief HR Manager "Peter". Now in return for just letting all of the union representation fall under the table "Klaus" wife in Brazil was given supposed contracts and payments that were never actually being delivered. When all of this came to light they couldn't actually put "Peter" in jail. His full name is "Peter Hartz" and he's actually the person that's responsible for Hartz-4 in Germany, a kind of social support food stamp program. They feared if he went to jail a lot of poor people would just stab him to death for that.
      VW has tons of these so it's really fun to dig into that if you have time.

  • @JackJackProductions
    @JackJackProductions 10 місяців тому +4427

    Sam, I can't believe you do not know how to pronounce Porsche

    • @existentialselkath1264
      @existentialselkath1264 10 місяців тому +325

      At this point, I can't believe ANYONE knows how to pronounce Porsche

    • @sabersz
      @sabersz 10 місяців тому +410

      I know the correct way is Porsh-uh, but I just don't care and keep saying it 'Porsh'

    • @AlphaGeekgirl
      @AlphaGeekgirl 10 місяців тому +113

      And I bet you don’t pronounce Volkswagen correctly either.

    • @jtgd
      @jtgd 10 місяців тому

      PorshuhébuttheEisentirelysilent

    • @Th3Shrike
      @Th3Shrike 10 місяців тому +181

      ​@@AlphaGeekgirl'folks vagen'

  • @sailorstu
    @sailorstu 10 місяців тому +2183

    Don't forget, they both own Audi, and Audi owns both of them.
    VW also owns Bentley, and Audi owns Lamborghini.
    They also own more additional car companies than I can count.

    • @ScottRothsroth0616
      @ScottRothsroth0616 10 місяців тому +300

      Officially called Volkswagen Group (“Volkswagen AG”)

    • @RayaRSS
      @RayaRSS 10 місяців тому +80

      Imagine working for them all 😭😭😭

    • @gqh007
      @gqh007 10 місяців тому +145

      The VAG -ina

    • @sailorstu
      @sailorstu 10 місяців тому +15

      @@RayaRSS Do they all cut you a separate pay cheque 🤔

    • @RayaRSS
      @RayaRSS 10 місяців тому +38

      @@sailorstu no, each company employs its own people

  • @Chucklet11
    @Chucklet11 10 місяців тому +1378

    "1937 and berlin is a combo of date and location that goes together like peanut butter and Hitler" is one of the best jokes you've made on this channel. Well done.

    • @LoFiAxolotl
      @LoFiAxolotl 10 місяців тому +11

      actually started laughing out loud

    • @kennethkho7165
      @kennethkho7165 10 місяців тому +1

      Hitler and Jews

    • @plasmaxl8626
      @plasmaxl8626 10 місяців тому +10

      I think it was the perfect delivery that made it so funny xD

    • @visiblerat
      @visiblerat 10 місяців тому +2

      fr caught me so off guard

    • @janspacek2887
      @janspacek2887 10 місяців тому +4

      I lost it when Hitler got distracted by Jews existing and no one got the car. 😅

  • @namenamename390
    @namenamename390 10 місяців тому +1865

    "Porsche" is said so often in this video, I bet it was a delibertate choice to bait people into correcting Sam's pronounciation. On that note, "Porsche" is a two syllable word, it doesn't have a silent e at the end.

    • @Frdnnd
      @Frdnnd 10 місяців тому +59

      Exactly
      Porsh-Aye

    • @itsgonnabeanaurfromme
      @itsgonnabeanaurfromme 10 місяців тому +76

      The sheer stupidity of pointing out it was a bait and still being such a know-it-all that you fell for it, KNOWING so many people already corrected him.

    • @marcuskrogsgaard4555
      @marcuskrogsgaard4555 10 місяців тому +172

      @@Frdnnd the german pronunciation is closer to "por-shuh"

    • @namenamename390
      @namenamename390 10 місяців тому +87

      @@itsgonnabeanaurfromme or, perhaps, I was trying to be funny. I guess German humour doesn't work well over text.

    • @felixw19
      @felixw19 10 місяців тому +48

      The Problem is that native english speakers just refuse to pronounce Es at the end of words...

  • @MissDatherinePierce
    @MissDatherinePierce 10 місяців тому +513

    The Volkswagen Act is actually still in place (the German wikipedia article is very long in the EU section) and the holder of the 20,2% shares is technically not the Federal Republic of Germany but the state of Lower-Saxony. The only thing that really changed is the section that no matter how many shares you own you could only act as if you had 20%. This has been abolished. But the 20,2% in shares remain with the state. They also kept the 4/5 majority which I honestly appreciate as someone who lives in a region that depends on the jobs and Porsche has in the past threatened to bleed the VW productions facilities out and to close some of them to recoup their losses.
    Btw there is also the Volkswagengroup which is the same to Volkswagen as Porsche SE is to Porsche AG. This can get difficult if you work for them and you want to switch positions between the group and the brand.

    • @tacoaficionado
      @tacoaficionado 10 місяців тому

      Screw your minister of Transport and other politicians

    • @Homer-OJ-Simpson
      @Homer-OJ-Simpson 10 місяців тому

      I saw this on nebula a day ago. I thought the video mentioned that? That they abolished the rule.

    • @MicrosoftSam92
      @MicrosoftSam92 10 місяців тому +35

      Another fun fact: part of the punishment in Dieselgate was payment of a billion Euros to the state of Lower Saxony, i.e., a shareholder.

    • @COPKALA
      @COPKALA 10 місяців тому +12

      The LS-state was really clever.
      In Italy the government basically gave over and over and over again a lot of money to FIAT which was an employer with ~1 million workers (during the golden ages of the production) without gaining any control on the decisions of the company (which fired many times many people immediately after getting the help from the state... or kept the workers in 'kurz-arbeit' equivalent status for months at a time).
      In the years 2000 FIAT had barely 20k workers and lost most of the Italian market.

    • @MrNicoJac
      @MrNicoJac 10 місяців тому +1

      Why is it difficult to switch between the group and the brand? :)

  • @tremondial
    @tremondial 10 місяців тому +263

    Porsche also received a royalty fee for every VW Beetle ever sold. And since the Beetle at its time was the most sold car in the world, this fee amounted to a lot of money. This is how Porsche was able to buy so many VW shares and service such a large debt.

    • @LoFiAxolotl
      @LoFiAxolotl 10 місяців тому +17

      no.... that happened in literally 2 different millenia.... porsche was able to get such a huge loan because once they had purchased 15% of VW stock they were big enough to be considered systematic and at that point you can get pretty much infinite amounts of loans from the german development bank at cost...

    • @c.j.3404
      @c.j.3404 10 місяців тому +7

      I'm pretty sure the beetle is still the best selling car in history.

    • @gave2haze
      @gave2haze 10 місяців тому

      ​@@tremondialprofit from selling 911s

    • @tremondial
      @tremondial 10 місяців тому +3

      @@c.j.3404 by now it's actually the Toyota Corolla. The Beetle stopped production long ago, while the world kept growing. Today its not even in top 5 - but the VW Golf & VW Passaat are.

    • @bradevans7935
      @bradevans7935 10 місяців тому +8

      @@tremondial The Beetle is still the best selling car in history, when you define it by the terms of being one basic design with relatively minor changes during the model run. Cars like the Corolla or Golf don't count in the same way as there are different designs of each every few years, with very little carried over between succeeding generation.

  • @christianx1z
    @christianx1z 10 місяців тому +39

    HAI owns wendover productions and wendover productions owns HAI

  • @Caretoexplainwatchamean
    @Caretoexplainwatchamean 10 місяців тому +106

    Can we just talk about how he called the beetle "ugly"?
    I appreciate every discussion and I gladly accept different opinions. But this is the first time I ever heard someone say that.

    • @ivzh5025
      @ivzh5025 10 місяців тому +10

      Agreed, I think its a rather charming compact car.

    • @redey1290
      @redey1290 10 місяців тому +4

      The Beetle was notoriously made fun of on Top Gear as well. I always thought they were very neat cars though, and a great way to get into classic car ownership actually

    • @theviniso
      @theviniso 10 місяців тому +7

      In Latin America calling the beetle ugly is an easy way to get thrown in jail.

    • @ElusiveTy
      @ElusiveTy 9 місяців тому

      Idk, it's a bit like an ugly duckling. It's cute and endearing, while also being ugly, and that's alright.

    • @exelrode
      @exelrode 9 місяців тому +1

      @@ElusiveTy while I know its all subjective, very few people would actually call the beetle an ugly car and honestly if you compare it with most american cars back in the day, it's better looking than most of them and I say that as a car enthusiast

  • @quintessences
    @quintessences 10 місяців тому +82

    This reminds me of the equally legally confusing corporate structure that is Pokémon. Please do a video

  • @shanemooon
    @shanemooon 10 місяців тому +76

    This is one of the best examples of how money is basically fake and does not matter.

    • @LibertyGunsBeerTrump
      @LibertyGunsBeerTrump 10 місяців тому +9

      Also at the same time one of the most important things in the world

    • @drizmans
      @drizmans 10 місяців тому +5

      It's literally the opposite of meaning that. What isn't immediately obvious is that creative financial instrumentation like this is one way we excite economic growth, because you're kind of artificially inflating money supply through the creation of debt - which the government wants a certain level of. A certain level of serviceable debt is healthy for the economy. It's a problem when debt becomes unserviceable (aka people can't afford the interest)

    • @SQERDOMOONLIGHT
      @SQERDOMOONLIGHT 9 місяців тому

      @@drizmans Aka the US government in a few years...

  • @juliane__
    @juliane__ 10 місяців тому +62

    You missed the whole infighting thing around Piech and Wiedeking. Piech is a descendand of Porsche and as CEO of VW owned a big portion of ..... Porsche SE, not AG. You could make a way bigger, actually funnily confusing video out of it, that is maybe worth the ad at the end.

    • @ZeDestructor00
      @ZeDestructor00 10 місяців тому +3

      So much this. When you *really* look at it, it wasn't really about the manufacturing (especially later), but rather the fight between Piech and the Porsche family for ownership of Porsche. It just so happened that the excuses cooked up on the spot to placate the usual business folks managed to just barely pass muster.

    • @juliane__
      @juliane__ 9 місяців тому +1

      @@ZeDestructor00 I would really like to listen to one who has insights to it. I still remember some articles about. It was the biggest and loudest industry competition in Germany for at least this decade. I would say a couple of decades. But my knowledge is finite too.

  • @lonestranger
    @lonestranger 10 місяців тому +88

    Correction right off the bat: The Chrysler Corporation no longer exists, and therefore cannot own other brands or companies. Stellantis owns the Chrysler & Dodge brands, the FIAT company, and the Maserati company. Today, neither Chrysler or Dodge exist as companies, they're merely brand names under Stellantis. This same arrangement existed during the time of Stellantis's predecessor, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.

    • @guilhermetavares4705
      @guilhermetavares4705 10 місяців тому +7

      Stellantis = FCA (Fiat, Chrysler, Dodge, RAM, Jeep...) + PSA (Peugeot, Citroen, Opel)

  • @nerd26373
    @nerd26373 10 місяців тому +96

    We appreciate your insights. These car brands are absolutely intriguing to learn about.

  • @Pikog777
    @Pikog777 10 місяців тому +29

    0:48 bro did NOT just call the vw beetle ugly

    • @nsn2635
      @nsn2635 10 місяців тому +1

      Fr bro imma start ww3 for that right there

    • @d9zirable
      @d9zirable 3 місяці тому

      He's right though

    • @dexterie
      @dexterie Місяць тому

      Ikr? Completely blind 😦

  • @Mo-du6bn
    @Mo-du6bn 10 місяців тому +104

    As a german, I feel the urgent need to tell you that you have to pronounce the „e“ in Porsche. Kind of like „Porschuh“ 😂

    • @paulds65
      @paulds65 10 місяців тому

      I was about to make the same remark.

    • @Aniqa101
      @Aniqa101 10 місяців тому +4

      There even is a video of Porsche on how to pronounce Porsche.

    • @jasonhatt4295
      @jasonhatt4295 10 місяців тому +1

      I hope it’s in the owners manual too.

    • @goatgamer001
      @goatgamer001 10 місяців тому

      In America they call porsche porsh

    • @Mo-du6bn
      @Mo-du6bn 10 місяців тому +5

      @@goatgamer001 yes but it does not change the fact that it‘s wrong

  • @JJ-sd4kb
    @JJ-sd4kb 10 місяців тому +46

    the analogy sam gave for porche ag and se was hilarious

  • @deutschthomas2751
    @deutschthomas2751 10 місяців тому +12

    I think the history of power struggles inside the Porsche/Piech family is strongly related to this topic and is worthy for another quite longer video

  • @xxFxDx
    @xxFxDx 10 місяців тому +60

    You've got a glaring error regarding the Volkswagen law in the video. The Volkswagen law consists of multiple sections, among which two are relevant: one made it a rule that any single party, no matter their share amount, could only have 20% of the voting rights. This part was ruled illegal by the european court. A second part, requiring an 80% majority to change the articles of association, is still in place today. You can read it up on the german Wikipedia page: de.wikipedia.org/wiki/VW-Gesetz

  • @AgentH8voc
    @AgentH8voc 10 місяців тому +9

    Inb4 tons of comments criticizing your pronunciation of “porsche”

  • @YvonTripper
    @YvonTripper 10 місяців тому +16

    This is a "reverse takeover" and is actually pretty common. A company buys a business, but instead of paying the owners of the business in cash, they get paid in shares of the buyer. This makes sense where the buyer doesn't have a lot of spare cash but is able to convince the owners they have a good plan to make both their own company and the business they are buying more profitable in the future.
    But I've also seen it happen where the buyer's board of directors realizes their business is too small to be profitable, but instead of selling their assets off like responsible directors to make the shareholders whatever they can, the board instead tries to acquire another business and hope the two businesses together will be big enough to start making money. This rarely works and just dilutes the company's existing shareholders, but in the meantime the directors get to keep their jobs.

    • @dgpsf
      @dgpsf 10 місяців тому +2

      Hey wait a minute, are you talking about me????
      - Eddie Lampert, legendary best CEO ever

  • @MrBelles104
    @MrBelles104 10 місяців тому +31

    It seems that Porsche is truly in control as their many company owns the car company that owns their car company.

  • @sanjay48m
    @sanjay48m 10 місяців тому +25

    I am very proud to say that I finally knew about a weird thing before it came on Half as Interesting😂😂

  • @DZ477
    @DZ477 10 місяців тому +62

    Props to HAI for showing the symbol and not being fearful of demonetization!

  • @leonohlinger3237
    @leonohlinger3237 10 місяців тому +12

    “porsh”

  • @neondemon5137
    @neondemon5137 10 місяців тому +8

    Even Hollywood's creative accountants would blush from shame at this fiasco.

  • @jangschoen1019
    @jangschoen1019 10 місяців тому +61

    You know, Porsche does have a pronunciation video for "Porsche"

    • @MayTheSchwartzBeWithYou
      @MayTheSchwartzBeWithYou 10 місяців тому +3

      People mispronounce foreign words all the time. What makes "Porsche" special?

    • @yessir4859
      @yessir4859 10 місяців тому +8

      @@MayTheSchwartzBeWithYou If you're going to make an informative video, wouldn't it make sense to pronounce their name properly?

    • @MayTheSchwartzBeWithYou
      @MayTheSchwartzBeWithYou 10 місяців тому +3

      @@yessir4859 "Porsche" is so frequently pronounced without the final schwa in American English (and maybe other dialects) that it's practically the standard pronunciation at this point. You wouldn't expect an educational English-language video about Paris to pronounce "Paris" the French way.

    • @gave2haze
      @gave2haze 10 місяців тому +4

      Its a brand name, they require their name to be pronounced (?) and used in the proper context depending on their trademark to avoid things like genericisation (might have spelt that wrong)

    • @JoeJohnson-mk4qd
      @JoeJohnson-mk4qd 10 місяців тому +4

      @@MayTheSchwartzBeWithYou He just said.... they have a video telling you how to say it.

  • @halulife35
    @halulife35 10 місяців тому +4

    0:32 the neighbors are hearing me wheeze rn lmfao

  • @Matt-xc6sp
    @Matt-xc6sp 10 місяців тому +115

    Was a vegetarian, loved dogs, and wanted to expand transportation opportunities to all classes. What a nice guy.

    • @hoisamuro
      @hoisamuro 10 місяців тому

      Nazi

    • @StukovM1g
      @StukovM1g 10 місяців тому +22

      Just a pity about the war mongering and genocide.

    • @patricknevermind8529
      @patricknevermind8529 10 місяців тому +8

      There's good in bad people & bad in good people. But it is unwise to ignore their actions.

    • @Matt-xc6sp
      @Matt-xc6sp 10 місяців тому +7

      @@patricknevermind8529 whoa dude I was kidding.

    • @Phobero
      @Phobero 10 місяців тому +1

      Something about his eyes... hypnotic

  • @PRIMEVAL543
    @PRIMEVAL543 10 місяців тому +71

    Fun fact: the e in Porsche isnt there for decoration...

  • @won1853
    @won1853 10 місяців тому +3

    This is actually very straightforward in the world of corporate ownership. You should see some of the circular ownership structures in Korean Chaebols, i.e. Samsung, LG, Hyundai...

  • @SundarSrinivasHarish
    @SundarSrinivasHarish 10 місяців тому +4

    The backstory aside, the actual ownership structure is not that complicated if you think of Porsche SE as the Porsche-Piech family holding and Porsche AG as the car company.

  • @itryen7632
    @itryen7632 3 місяці тому +6

    Least confusing German company

  • @mujjuman
    @mujjuman 10 місяців тому +2

    as a german car and porsche enthusiast, i never figured this out by myself until u explained it so well.

  • @Lawz2000
    @Lawz2000 10 місяців тому +9

    I remember the back and forth in around 2008 Porsche was buying VW the next week it was VW buying Porsche 😂

    • @aritakalo8011
      @aritakalo8011 10 місяців тому +3

      Even funnier was Porsche going "no we aren't planning to buy VW controlling stake", see we have no more active buys. While at the same time buying bunch of later maturing binding buy contracts of various weird arrangements. Which is technically different and they didn't need to disclose, because stock market rules. Utterly devious and questionable morals regarding honesty and good faith acting on stock market? Oh absolutely. Still technically legal? Well yes also, since Porsche SE had their legal department working overtime everything was technically legal.
      Then just one day they went. Oh right, we have this many shares and ... ... enough later maturing contracts (soon to mature all on one go) for already set buys to be in controlling sake. Oops did we mislead you about that controlling stake thing. Well rules say we didn't technically lie. So it's legal. That is also the moment the squeeze happened.
      Since it seemed there was float on the market, but then when Porsche SE revealed their hand and how much pending buys they had in place, everyone realised "crappie, that means there isn't enough float to cover all these shorts".
      Porsche SE did all this maneuvering, since as said they really didn't have the funds to buy VW and even more certainly wouldn't have it upon everyone knowing they were planning for controlling stake. Everyone would just wait for price to go up and Porsche come knocking. Say they lied and hid their acquisition in complex technically legal arrangements.

  • @PetraJohan
    @PetraJohan 10 місяців тому +81

    I want more bad jokes, the pronunciation of Porsche was not funny enough

    • @MonkeyJedi99
      @MonkeyJedi99 10 місяців тому +10

      "Goes together like peanut butter and Hitler." was a winner.
      I had to pause the video to guffaw for a bit.

    • @MayTheSchwartzBeWithYou
      @MayTheSchwartzBeWithYou 10 місяців тому +4

      Is it also funny when you mispronounce foreign words?

    • @fonkbadonk5370
      @fonkbadonk5370 10 місяців тому +2

      @@MayTheSchwartzBeWithYou If I make a video where the main topic IS that foreign word, I'd very much make sure to pronounce it correctly. It's even worse here, since he pronounces BOTH central things wrong. As much as I love Sam's stuff, this to me just seems lazy.

    • @MayTheSchwartzBeWithYou
      @MayTheSchwartzBeWithYou 10 місяців тому +1

      @@fonkbadonk5370 The word is pronounced without the final schwa so frequently that I would consider it an acceptable pronunciation within the context of American English. This seems tantamount to me to complaining that a video about Paris doesn't pronounce 'Paris' as "paʁi" (with a French 'r' and without the final 's').

    • @fonkbadonk5370
      @fonkbadonk5370 10 місяців тому +1

      @@MayTheSchwartzBeWithYou Paris has a proper name in English, just as for example Cologne or Munich, which differ from the contry-specific name. Porsche does not. So much not, that as I've read somewhere else here, they even have a video made by themselves, that explains the proper pronounciation. Apples to pears imho.

  • @998theraff
    @998theraff 10 місяців тому +4

    The E at the end of Prosche is there for a reason

  • @drjamespotter
    @drjamespotter 10 місяців тому +2

    Porsche also owns a very successful management consultancy and engineering/manufacturing IT consultancy. I work for a VW Group brand and they win work from us competitively as both are very good. The other brands have to use Group engineering IT systems (which are often horrible), but Porsche can do whatever they like. They are in Group when it suits them and out when it doesn't.

    • @SianaGearz
      @SianaGearz 10 місяців тому

      Ahahah i remember trying to get any engineering supplies from VW, working at their semi-subsidiary. It was impossible.

  • @marcelsantee1809
    @marcelsantee1809 10 місяців тому +18

    Did you just call the Beetle extremely ugly? How dare you?

  • @walpoleandworcester
    @walpoleandworcester 10 місяців тому +8

    Half as Interesting also has a stake in Nebula and Nebula has a stake in him and Wendover Productions. Touche! 😂

    • @gave2haze
      @gave2haze 10 місяців тому +2

      Sam owns and created nebula, while nebula owns and created some of his original series

  • @JannesJustus
    @JannesJustus 10 місяців тому +4

    Can’t blame you for how you pronounce Volkswagen, but I do blame you for how you pronounce Porsche

  • @CYMotorsport
    @CYMotorsport 10 місяців тому +2

    1:58 actually shocked you didn’t tell people he stole the design to which they lost the lawsuit no after the war. That’s legitimately the most interesting link haha

  • @matrick1356
    @matrick1356 10 місяців тому +2

    I WAS LITERALLY SEARCHING THIS THE OTHER DAY like what the hell is the thing between porche and volkswagen this video could not have came more on time

  • @ylya4987
    @ylya4987 10 місяців тому +4

    the 20% voting shares are actually not owned by the German government but by the federal state of Lower Saxony which is a completely different entity

  • @ryanroberts1104
    @ryanroberts1104 10 місяців тому +5

    Corporate paperwork is always so exciting! My business works similarly, I am a landlord, but I don't own the house I live in, my company does, and I pay me rent. And then collect a paycheck. Loopholes are fun!

    • @erkinyldrm6579
      @erkinyldrm6579 10 місяців тому

      Don't you pay taxes from rent to goverment?

    • @ryanroberts1104
      @ryanroberts1104 10 місяців тому +2

      @@erkinyldrm6579 Houses are a depreciating asset, according to the IRS. So in theory yes, but every penny I spend on maintenance and principle payments is a write off...and that cost more than rent.
      One of the biggest reasons for renting from myself is red tape and insurance. Now if I injure myself I could also sue myself so my insurance pays for damages! LOL! 'Merica!
      But yes I do pay an absurd amount of property taxes! :)
      (When I say "myself" my personal name and my LLC are two different entities...sorta)

    • @erkinyldrm6579
      @erkinyldrm6579 10 місяців тому +1

      @@ryanroberts1104 Gotta love loop holes like you said. Thanks for having the time for a detailed answer. So cool!

  • @der.Schtefan
    @der.Schtefan 10 місяців тому +2

    That's now how you pronounce Porsche. The e is not silent.

  • @Herfinnur
    @Herfinnur 10 місяців тому

    I've wondered about this for fifteen years, so thank you

  • @sh_project1999
    @sh_project1999 10 місяців тому +5

    As a german I often figured it out with Wikipedia and the forgot it again, I hope this video will help me to keep it in my head haha

    • @stefthepef
      @stefthepef 10 місяців тому +4

      I just refer to this corporate structure as "the Porsche centipede."

    • @rkan2
      @rkan2 10 місяців тому

      ​@@stefthepefThe rolling emblem.. The E(at) in the emblem, the emblem of winning... What else 😂

  • @mage1over137
    @mage1over137 10 місяців тому +10

    To be fair this is only weird because of the naming. But really this is just an structuring of assets, I'm sure there are other companies that have done the exact same thing. Also the 80% rule just made it harder to pull off.

    • @gave2haze
      @gave2haze 10 місяців тому

      While the financial process is not complicated, the story of Porsche and wv is so historic this is just one of the more interesting chapters, they are literally unable to not coexist in some way

    • @Icetea-2000
      @Icetea-2000 10 місяців тому

      @@gave2hazeYeah good thing we got a 5 minute video for it where over a minute of it is an ad and the rest is mostly just snarky comments, really does the topic proper service!

    • @SQERDOMOONLIGHT
      @SQERDOMOONLIGHT 9 місяців тому

      @@Icetea-2000 Thats every video on this channel.

    • @Icetea-2000
      @Icetea-2000 9 місяців тому

      @@SQERDOMOONLIGHT Yes

  • @orthodox-mp6hv
    @orthodox-mp6hv 9 місяців тому +1

    Fun fact - at one point the People's Republic of Bulgaria owned 8% of VW. Todor Zhivkov, the general secretary was a bit of a celebrity there.

  • @momostube9625
    @momostube9625 10 місяців тому +1

    “Sort of how my writers do all the work, but I exist to maintain the cages from which they toil” 😅 brilliant!

  • @aspacenerdfromflorida1134
    @aspacenerdfromflorida1134 10 місяців тому +3

    Sam 100% knew what he was doing when he pronounced porsche like that 😂😂😂 he’s poking a beehive rn

  • @someonesaveus
    @someonesaveus 10 місяців тому +5

    Say it with me; por - shuh

  • @stijnvandamme76
    @stijnvandamme76 10 місяців тому +2

    Car journalists had ADD problems and have been unable to figure any of this out, despite it being pretty obvious and visible on the Porsche SE website.
    Simply put, the Original Porsche AG, (the air cooled Porsches company) is now Porsche SE, it owns VAG and everything in it + Porsche financial, engineering, Design and some other tidbits.
    The current Porsche AG is a brand new company, and is simply parked within VAG alongside all the other brands they have in there

  • @jwalster9412
    @jwalster9412 10 місяців тому

    Having a bond so good that it can be broken is a curse and a blessing.

  • @komentierer
    @komentierer 10 місяців тому +7

    This was sloppy research at best. Your take on why Porsche and VW tried to exert influence on one another is completely wrong!
    The rivalry of the Piech and Porsche families is absolutely crucial to the story, it's what dictated both companie's modern histories

    • @thetaomega7816
      @thetaomega7816 10 місяців тому +2

      the power struggle of Porsche vs Piech is enough for seasons of Televisions, soooo yes this is crazily dumbed down

    • @planej6315
      @planej6315 10 місяців тому +1

      Also the 356 wasn't shoddily built in the VW factory with VW, but rather in its own designeated Porsche factory in Stuttgart and not Germany but the state of Niedersachsen keeps 20% of VW and and and... way too many errors and not enough information

  • @Esp661
    @Esp661 10 місяців тому +3

    I'm going to have a stroke listening to Sam mispronounce Porsche without the e

  • @13thravenpurple94
    @13thravenpurple94 10 місяців тому

    Great video 👍 Thank you 💜

  • @TheHylianBatman
    @TheHylianBatman 10 місяців тому +1

    Ah, corporate structures, always a great HAI topic!

  • @lordcola-3324
    @lordcola-3324 10 місяців тому +14

    That is one lonly 'e' at the end of Prosche. Yes, the 'e' at the end of 'Porsche' is pronounced. 'porsh' is infact the wrong pronunciation.

  • @Ganjor420
    @Ganjor420 10 місяців тому +3

    As soon as a business structure gets more complicated than "X owns Y" I instantly smell shady tricks or scams.

  • @adamhlali8106
    @adamhlali8106 10 місяців тому +2

    Finally someone talks about this. I literally spotted it years ago and thought it was interesting.

  • @saNynho
    @saNynho 10 місяців тому +1

    It's not what this video is about, but the Porsche buying plenty of VW stock part was criminally simplified. The part leading up to 08 is honestly much more interesting than the corporate structure

  • @hubbel6831
    @hubbel6831 10 місяців тому +3

    Did he said that the vw Beatles is ugly?????

  • @TheMrFabian1
    @TheMrFabian1 10 місяців тому +55

    As a German I have to - and I am dearly sorry about that - be the wise-guy to point out that this pronunciation of Porsche is awfully off.

    • @xander1052
      @xander1052 10 місяців тому

      it's a big issue with many americans and brits, in spite of Top Gear still a lot of people pronounce Porsche as if the e doesn't exist

    • @Iambestforreal
      @Iambestforreal 10 місяців тому

      ikr its pronouced like PORSHA thats kinda how u pronounce it

    • @fortimusprime
      @fortimusprime 10 місяців тому

      I'm not German and I know this is not how either of these brands are pronounced. Like you say, Porsche is supposed to be said like "porsh-uh", and Volkswagen is supposed to be said "Folks-vagen"

    • @MonkeyJedi99
      @MonkeyJedi99 10 місяців тому

      As a speaker of (American) English, I have to - and I am not too sorry about that - be the wise guy to point out that YOUR language is incomprehensible most of the time.
      Here in English, when we make/find a new thing, we make a new word for it.
      In German, when you make/find a new thing, you smash lots of your existing words together in a tongue twister.

    • @MonkeyJedi99
      @MonkeyJedi99 10 місяців тому

      @@Iambestforreal I pronounce it "Uppity VW"

  • @mattiarizzi
    @mattiarizzi 10 місяців тому

    Buying a company and then use the free cash flow of the bought company to pay the debt was also done in Italy, when Autostrade (Highways) was bought by Atlantia (Benetton’s holding). They also managed to incorporate the debt of buying Autostrade inside Autostrade, effettively buying a company with the bought company’s money.

  • @GeoffMorrison
    @GeoffMorrison 10 місяців тому +1

    Using an image of the 914, the forgotten Porsche: 10/10

  • @divingboardz
    @divingboardz 10 місяців тому +18

    Porsche is pronounced porsha because as you said in this video, Porsche is a German brand. In German, an e at the end of a word is pronounced as "uh".

    • @alexanderhanhardt9752
      @alexanderhanhardt9752 10 місяців тому +9

      This video made me violently ill and physically hurt to watch.

    • @soundscape26
      @soundscape26 10 місяців тому +3

      @@alexanderhanhardt9752 That's how almost all English native speakers say Porsche for better or worse.

    • @Icetea-2000
      @Icetea-2000 10 місяців тому +1

      @@soundscape26Yeah I know it’s a saying but just for worse

    • @calum5975
      @calum5975 10 місяців тому +1

      @@Icetea-2000 It is what it is. No one outside of France can say "Renault" anything like they do in France. Brand names always get butchered by foreign speakers, it's just part of it.

    • @Icetea-2000
      @Icetea-2000 10 місяців тому +3

      @@calum5975 Absolutely false, that’s just a cope by english speakers to justify their bad pronunciation of foreign words because they only know one language. Pronouncing "Renault" correctly is easily possible for anyone who has cared to put any amount of effort into learning french pronunciation. Native english speakers just don’t care and it’s ridiculous to act like the whole world is like them

  • @intheskywithpie
    @intheskywithpie 10 місяців тому +4

    Por-Sh-Uhh

  • @eskewroberts7663
    @eskewroberts7663 10 місяців тому +1

    This was genuinely a pretty cool story

    • @muadddib
      @muadddib 10 місяців тому +1

      This is not even the tip of the iceberg, too. Porsche was an extremely toxic family company with LOTS of infighting in the later years. There are very good documentaries on it, but the ones i know are all german. Still, very interesting rabbit hole.

  • @MrHantz101
    @MrHantz101 4 місяці тому

    In the 1980s there was a comic book called The Question. In it, the hero Vic Sage owned a beat up Beetle, but he described it having a "Porsche mill, racing shocks and a Ferrari transmission." Until that point, I had no idea a Porsche engine would fit in a VW.

  • @Fayanora
    @Fayanora 10 місяців тому +3

    Fun fact: In German, "Volkswagen" is pronounced "Folks-vaag-en."

  • @paush51
    @paush51 10 місяців тому +5

    I love how English speakers always forget the e of Porsch!E!

  • @lexiej187
    @lexiej187 10 місяців тому

    I knew this video was written by none other than Ben before I even looked. It just had so many Ben vibes.

  • @dalegaliniak607
    @dalegaliniak607 8 місяців тому

    This weird sort of ownership craziness is actually super common, it just goes unnoticed the vast majority of the time because all the different subsidiary corporations are called the same thing, usually organized this way to avoid paying taxes. It's about a thousand times more complicated, with figuring out which companies own which other ones, all with certain legal jurisdictions and requirements, that companies hire the team I work for to essentially do data analysis of their financial books to generate an organization chart that CFOs can look at and see which subsidiaries own which, and to make sure that there aren't any circular ownerships (like in the porsche example).

  • @franzlemar2250
    @franzlemar2250 10 місяців тому +14

    Nice pronunciation of 'Porsche', Sam

  • @noahashley827
    @noahashley827 10 місяців тому +21

    Correction: Porsche is pronounced like “Poor-Shuh”, not “Porch”.
    Source: I used to know some Porsche corporate employees that were very insistent on the proper pronunciation.

    • @andyjwagner
      @andyjwagner 10 місяців тому +4

      It basic German pronunciation. Anybody who knows the language can tell you that’s how it’s pronounced.

    • @Icetea-2000
      @Icetea-2000 10 місяців тому

      Americans just think it’s french for some reason and/or they don’t use their brain

    • @Aniqa101
      @Aniqa101 10 місяців тому +1

      There even is a video of Porsche on how to pronounce Porsche.

    • @istvanlorinczi2817
      @istvanlorinczi2817 10 місяців тому

      @@andyjwagner or even the jokes about Germans make sense here. They are seen as efficient people in general, why would they put a letter there if they wouldn't pronounce it?

    • @andyjwagner
      @andyjwagner 10 місяців тому

      @@istvanlorinczi2817 Genau so!

  • @Spiffa
    @Spiffa 10 місяців тому

    The first minute of this video is actually gold😂😂😂

  • @Not_a_JK
    @Not_a_JK 10 місяців тому +2

    This story is the absolute PLOT TWIST in car making history even if you know it

  • @dgu8240
    @dgu8240 10 місяців тому +10

    I never heard anyone mispronounce Porsche so many times in such a short time

  • @Merennulli
    @Merennulli 10 місяців тому +3

    The older I get, the more I mishear things. At first I thought you said "Heat, yeet, and enjoy." which sounds like the sadistic instructions for the people preparing oil above the murder holes of medieval castles.
    And, no, that wasn't the job I had in college. I'm not quite that old. It was high school. 😛

  • @JoshuaPeisach
    @JoshuaPeisach 10 місяців тому

    4:54 using the term schlep, nice :)

  • @DeckardShotFirst
    @DeckardShotFirst 10 місяців тому +2

    "Porsche" also has two syllables.

  • @jonasdatlas4668
    @jonasdatlas4668 10 місяців тому +3

    It all makes perfect sense so long as you don't mix up Porsche and Porsche and Volkswagen and Volkswagen :p

  • @Bruhyeet42069
    @Bruhyeet42069 10 місяців тому +19

    Now i don't expect a non native speaker to pronounce Porsche correctly, however i do expect someone that does a video about them and says Porsche a bunch of times to invest the 3 seconds it takes to look up how it is pronounced. Especially when it's such a common problem that Porsche itself made a video on how to pronounce it correctly like 5 years ago.

    • @foadrightnow5725
      @foadrightnow5725 10 місяців тому +2

      Thank you! Couldn't agree more!

    • @claudiobizama5603
      @claudiobizama5603 10 місяців тому +6

      He said in many previous videos that he does it on purpose so people angrily corrects him in the comments, which rises the engagement.

  • @TilmanBaumann
    @TilmanBaumann 10 місяців тому

    The fact that you glossed over the night of long knifes in 2008 is so funny. That event ALONE is worth a witty only half interestingly video.

  • @youssefbennani3930
    @youssefbennani3930 10 місяців тому +1

    "It's Porsch-e!" (*screams in Joey*)

  • @palashbhaumik4050
    @palashbhaumik4050 10 місяців тому +16

    When the story is about two car companies and you mispronounce both of them

  • @marcosettembre
    @marcosettembre 10 місяців тому +4

    Only legends watched this video on Saturday

    • @tunnis9690
      @tunnis9690 10 місяців тому

      How

    • @neogence9562
      @neogence9562 10 місяців тому

      Good question

    • @marcosettembre
      @marcosettembre 10 місяців тому

      @@tunnis9690 Nebula

    • @PsRohrbaugh
      @PsRohrbaugh 10 місяців тому

      It's not Saturday but I'm drinking in the morning 🍻

  • @longislandlegoboy
    @longislandlegoboy 10 місяців тому

    3:11 nice pie chart totally sums to 100

  • @funkygawy
    @funkygawy 10 місяців тому +1

    Interestingly Porsche SE really only owns 25% of Volkswagen AG - they own a controlling share (53% I think) of the common shares, but VW also has a big batch of non-voting preferred shares outstanding that are the typical shares traded by most retail & institutional investors (ticker VOW3). So Porsche SE's stake in VW is just under 27%.
    Porsche SE replicates this structure, where half the shares are non-voting preferred, and the other half are voting shares, 100% held by the family. So by virtue of this 50% economic ownership of Porsche SE, which in turn has a bit more than 25% economic ownership of VW AG (that's a total economic exposure of

  • @gstotty
    @gstotty 10 місяців тому +3

    What a great video! However, it is such a pain in the ears that Porsche was not pronounced correctly one single time!!! Guys its PorschE!!!!

  • @michaelheckmann3791
    @michaelheckmann3791 10 місяців тому +4

    Trailing "e"s are audible in German, it's Porsche, not Porsch.

  • @OndraMike
    @OndraMike Місяць тому

    the Porsche 356 wasn't constructed/designed by Ferdinand Porsche, the founder of the Porsche company, but his son Ferry Porsche...
    and for more confusion, there is even third company named Porsche Holding GmbH, founded by Ferry Porsche and his sister (btw. also mother to Ferdinand Piëch, yeah that's the one) based in Austria. Nowadays it's a wholesale and retail car seller, which imports and sells cars mainly in eastern europe... and it's part of Volkswagen AG too...

  • @seanwieland9763
    @seanwieland9763 10 місяців тому

    3:00 also known as a Leveraged Buyout (LBO)