Wiedeking out at Porsche

Wendelin Wiedeking, CEO of Porsche and Germany’s highest-paid manager, is leaving the company immediately, ending a long power struggle that pitted one of Europe’s most respected executives against two of Germany’s most powerful families. Porsche finance chief Holger Haerter will also be leaving the sports car maker.

Michael Macht, Porsche’s production chief, will replace Wiedeking and Thomas Edig, head of human resources, will be his deputy.

Wiedeking will be giving up a job that paid him 80 million euros (about $114 million) annually, but he will be taking a 50 million euro (nearly $71.3 million) parting gift with him. Haerter will also receive a golden handshake worth 12.5 million euros ($17.8 million). Often criticized for his lofty pay (German companies don’t go quite so overboard as their American counterparts), Wiedeking has pledged to use half his severance package to establish a charity in Stuttgart.

After taking over the reins at Porsche in 1992, Wiedeking took the near-bankrupt specialty carmaker and transformed it into the most profitable automobile manufacturer in the world. His downfall was a failed attempt to take over Volkswagen AG, one of the world’s largest carmakers. The timing was horrible and Porsche was left burdened with 9 billion euros ($12.8 billion) in debt as the economic downturn cut deeply into premium car sales (Porsche’s U.S. sales are down 36 percent so far this year). The company is now looking at a merger with VWAG, which recently affirmed its decision to continue sourcing minivans for the North American market from Chrysler Group, and is trying to negotiate a sale of a stake in the company to Qatar. The combined companies (Volkswagen already owns Audi, Bentley, Bugatti and Lamborghini) would make VW/Porsche the world’s second-largest automaker.