Porsche accused Volkswagen and its key shareholder Lower Saxony of extortion following a magazine report that VW and the regional state had demanded Porsche accept a tie-up of the two carmakers with VW in charge. Der Spiegel magazine reported in its online edition on Saturday, that Porsche Chief Executive Wendelin Wiedeking and Chairman Wolfgang Porsche had been pressed to agree by the end of June that VW take a 49 percent stake in Porsche's sports car business for 3-4 billion euros ($4.2-$5.6 billion).
VW had threatened it could insist on Porsche paying back in September a 700 million euro loan VW had provided, if Porsche rejected the offer, Spiegel online said, without citing sources.
Porsche Chairman Wolfgang Porsche and his deputy Uwe Hueck, an employee representative, said in a statement on Saturday they had been given an ultimatum by VW and Lower Saxony.
"We will not accept extortion. ... Ultimatums do not belong in the 21st century," they said.
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