How Porsche Owns Volkswagen and Volkswagen Owns Porsche

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Video written by Ben Doyle
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[@ricequackers]

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]

for the owner family thats still true to the letter

[@estenderyt]

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

[@jbird4478]

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

[@SissypheanCatboy]

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

[@estenderyt]

@@jbird4478 k

[@TheMrFabian1]

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]

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

[@Nderak]

fuck all shorts

[@xander1052]

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

[@Dangermad]

​​@@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]

@@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]

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

[@stefthepef]

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]

Yes, that one hurt :(

[@megamaser]

It hurts because it's true.

[@highqualityorangejuice420]

​@megamaser that's why you're adopted

[@vanwesthuizen7427]

Fühl ich.

[@Finkelfunk]

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]

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]

He likes Porsches.

[@centenarigamer]

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

[@bachpham6862]

@@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]

@@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.

[@Toast4tw]

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]

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

[@christophsaviation2045]

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

[@MaticTheProto]

I love poursh and wolkswagn 🥰🇩🇪

[@rennanizarchi7441]

Porshy

[@EEEEEEEE]

E‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎

[@JackJackProductions]

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

[@existentialselkath1264]

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

[@sabersz]

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

[@AlphaGeekgirl]

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

[@jtgd]

PorshuhébuttheEisentirelysilent

[@Th3Shrike]

​@@AlphaGeekgirl'folks vagen'

[@signbear999]

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

[@stevensarson482]

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]

YOU CAR'S ENGINE IS ON THE WRONG SIDE

[@adamuk73]

It owns your wallet, that's for sure.

[@graphite718]

I felt this.

[@FisicaFacil.]

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

[@namenamename390]

"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]

Exactly Porsh-Aye

[@itsgonnabeanaurfromme]

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]

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

[@namenamename390]

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

[@felixw19]

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

[@sailorstu]

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]

Officially called Volkswagen Group (“Volkswagen AG”)

[@RayaRSS]

Imagine working for them all 😭😭😭

[@gqh007]

The VAG -ina

[@sailorstu]

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

[@RayaRSS]

@@sailorstu no, each company employs its own people

[@Chucklet11]

"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]

actually started laughing out loud

[@kennethkho7165]

Hitler and Jews

[@plasmaxl8626]

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

[@visiblerat]

fr caught me so off guard

[@janspacek2887]

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

[@MissDatherinePierce]

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]

Screw your minister of Transport and other politicians

[@Homer-OJ-Simpson]

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

[@MicrosoftSam92]

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]

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]

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

[@tremondial]

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]

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]

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

[@gave2haze]

​@@tremondialprofit from selling 911s

[@tremondial]

@@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]

@@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.

[@Caretoexplainwatchamean]

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]

Agreed, I think its a rather charming compact car.

[@redey1290]

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]

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

[@ElusiveTy]

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

[@exelrode]

@@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]

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

[@EEEEEEEE]

E‎ ‎

[@juliane__]

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]

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__]

@@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]

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]

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

[@christianx1z]

HAI owns wendover productions and wendover productions owns HAI

[@EEEEEEEE]

E‎ ‎

[@shanemooon]

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

[@LibertyGunsBeerTrump]

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

[@drizmans]

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]

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

[@Pikog777]

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

[@nsn2635]

Fr bro imma start ww3 for that right there

[@d9zirable]

He's right though

[@dexterie]

Ikr? Completely blind 😦

[@deutschthomas2751]

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

[@nerd26373]

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

[@Mo-du6bn]

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]

I was about to make the same remark.

[@Aniqa101]

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

[@jasonhatt4295]

I hope it’s in the owners manual too.

[@goatgamer001]

In America they call porsche porsh

[@Mo-du6bn]

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

[@YvonTripper]

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]

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

[@xxFxDx]

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

[@JJ-sd4kb]

the analogy sam gave for porche ag and se was hilarious

[@DZ477]

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

[@PRIMEVAL543]

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

[@sanjay48m]

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

[@play_all_day]

Same!!!

[@won1853]

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...

[@AgentH8voc]

Inb4 tons of comments criticizing your pronunciation of “porsche”

[@jangschoen1019]

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

[@MayTheSchwartzBeWithYou]

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

[@yessir4859]

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

[@MayTheSchwartzBeWithYou]

@@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]

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]

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

[@leonohlinger3237]

“porsh”

[@plumjet0930]

Porch

[@leonohlinger3237]

@@plumjet0930 definitly not Porsche tho 😂

[@MrBelles104]

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

[@SundarSrinivasHarish]

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.

[@mujjuman]

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

[@PetraJohan]

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

[@MonkeyJedi99]

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

[@MayTheSchwartzBeWithYou]

Is it also funny when you mispronounce foreign words?

[@fonkbadonk5370]

@@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]

@@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]

@@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.

[@halulife35]

0:32 the neighbors are hearing me wheeze rn lmfao

[@Matt-xc6sp]

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

[@hoisamuro]

Nazi

[@StukovM1g]

Just a pity about the war mongering and genocide.

[@patricknevermind8529]

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

[@Matt-xc6sp]

@@patricknevermind8529 whoa dude I was kidding.

[@Phobero]

Something about his eyes... hypnotic

[@998theraff]

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

[@drjamespotter]

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]

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

[@ylya4987]

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

[@neondemon5137]

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

[@Lawz2000]

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

[@aritakalo8011]

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.

[@matrick1356]

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

[@ryanroberts1104]

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]

Don't you pay taxes from rent to goverment?

[@ryanroberts1104]

@@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]

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

[@marcelsantee1809]

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

[@walpoleandworcester]

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

[@gave2haze]

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

[@orthodox-mp6hv]

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.

[@JannesJustus]

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

[@TheMrFabian1]

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]

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]

ikr its pronouced like PORSHA thats kinda how u pronounce it

[@fortimusprime]

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]

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]

@@Iambestforreal I pronounce it "Uppity VW"

[@Herfinnur]

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

[@der.Schtefan]

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

[@itryen7632]

Least confusing German company

[@mage1over137]

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]

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]

@@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]

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

[@Icetea-2000]

@@SQERDOMOONLIGHT Yes

[@CYMotorsport]

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

[@stijnvandamme76]

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

[@sh_project1999]

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]

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

[@rkan2]

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

[@komentierer]

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]

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

[@planej6315]

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

[@saNynho]

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

[@adamhlali8106]

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

[@noahashley827]

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]

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

[@Icetea-2000]

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

[@Aniqa101]

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

[@istvanlorinczi2817]

@@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]

@@istvanlorinczi2817 Genau so!

[@hubbel6831]

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

[@jwalster9412]

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

[@TheHylianBatman]

Ah, corporate structures, always a great HAI topic!

[@aspacenerdfromflorida1134]

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

[@divingboardz]

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]

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

[@soundscape26]

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

[@Icetea-2000]

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

[@calum5975]

@@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]

@@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

[@13thravenpurple94]

Great video 👍 Thank you 💜

[@theunholybiggestboss]

0:49 what a kind looking guy

[@lordcola-3324]

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.

[@Esp661]

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

[@MrHantz101]

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.

[@OndraMike]

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...

[@Ganjor420]

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

[@someonesaveus]

Say it with me; por - shuh

[@momostube9625]

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

[@mattiarizzi]

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.

[@Fayanora]

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

[@frankseverijnen859]

No

[@dgu8240]

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

[@istvanlorinczi2817]

Couldn't bear it after 20 seconds

[@dalegaliniak607]

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).

[@longislandlegoboy]

3:11 nice pie chart totally sums to 100

[@paush51]

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

[@intheskywithpie]

Por-Sh-Uhh

[@Spiffa]

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

[@lexiej187]

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

[@franzlemar2250]

Nice pronunciation of 'Porsche', Sam

[@Bruhyeet42069]

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]

Thank you! Couldn't agree more!

[@claudiobizama5603]

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

[@Gloworm17]

So the TL;DR is Porsche SE has controlling shares (majority ownership) over VW, whilst VW owns Porsche AG. So the shell company (Porsche SE) owns VW which owns Porsche AG.

[@maximelavallee-beaulieu6087]

Fun fact, the Porsche we know, is actually legally named : Doctor Ingenieur honoris causa Ferdinand Porsche Aktiengsellschaft. Learn that during a project on Porsche at school

[@Merennulli]

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. 😛

[@marcosettembre]

Only legends watched this video on Saturday

[@tunnis9690]

How

[@neogence9562]

Good question

[@marcosettembre]

@@tunnis9690 Nebula

[@PsRohrbaugh]

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

[@JoshuaPeisach]

4:54 using the term schlep, nice :)

[@eskewroberts7663]

This was genuinely a pretty cool story

[@muadddib]

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.

[@jonasdatlas4668]

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

[@palashbhaumik4050]

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

[@erickmk2682]

Finally the reason why old Porsche and Beetle look similar..

[@Momo_Kawashima]

"So who's in charge?" "...aaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAA" "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"

[@michaelheckmann3791]

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

[@gstotty]

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!!!!

[@GeoffMorrison]

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

[@TilmanBaumann]

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.