I wasn't sure where to put this, so move it as needed.

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High drama in the Porsche world. Imagine the egos involved.

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FRANKFURT, Jan. 20 - A high-stakes boardroom battle at Volkswagen ended in a truce Friday, as Ferdinand K. Piëch, the company's chairman and an heir to the Porsche fortune, agreed to step down next year in return for two Porsche executives gaining seats on the board.

Mr. Piëch, a powerful figure who was once Volkswagen's chief executive, has been accused by shareholders and other board members of a conflict of interest since Porsche, the sports car maker controlled by his family, acquired 18.5 percent of Volkswagen's shares last fall.

Porsche asserted that its investment entitled it to two seats on the Volkswagen board. Other directors objected, citing Mr. Piëch's dual interests and saying that Porsche was trying to amass too much influence over Volkswagen, a company more than 10 times its size and Germany's largest carmaker.

The dispute laid bare the web of interlocking ties among German companies, at times made all the closer by family holdings. It also raised troubling questions about corporate governance at Volkswagen, a far-flung automotive empire with public and private shareholders that has been rocked by a bribery and corruption scandal.

Under an agreement reached between Porsche and Volkswagen's other major shareholder, the state of Lower Saxony, Porsche's chief executive, Wendelin Wiedeking, will join the board immediately, and its chief financial officer, Holger P. Härter, will be nominated for a seat in May.

Full NYT story at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/21/business/worldbusiness/21auto.html?pagewanted=print