The four-year Porsche/Volkswagen saga, a tale of fast cars, big money, corporate ambition and a feuding dynasty, is entering its final act. The Volkswagen side – and chairman Ferdinand Piëch – seem poised to emerge as the ultimate victors.

By agreeing to a merger, Porsche and its family shareholders have implicitly admitted that, with debt topping €9bn, they overreached themselves by trying to acquire a much larger company. They have given up ambitions to dominate VW by lifting their stake from 51 to 75 per cent, and overturning the “Volkswagen law” that allows Lower Saxony to exercise a blocking minority via a 20.1 per cent stake. By instead combining the groups and sharing ownership with free-float shareholders, the families may end up with less than 50 per cent of voting rights – even after subscribing to a €5bn capital increase. In spite of pointed references to the Porsche brand retaining independence, their sports cars will become one of 10 marques under, in essence, a VW umbrella.