Due to their shady attempt to purchase Volkswagen in 2008, Porsche was sued by investors who claimed that the high end automaker manipulated the investing market, negatively impacting the value of VW stock and costing the plaintiffs over $2 billion.
The initial cause of this massive Porsche lawsuit was the massive increase in VW stock prices when Porsche announced that they planned to buy 75% of the company. Hedge investors had speculated that the value of VW stock would drop during that year but the huge spike is prices caused those folks to lose a healthy chunk of change. Although risk of this type is obvious when playing the stock market, those investors lawyered-up and went after Porsche for the $2 billion they lost.
However, on Thursday a US District Court in New York granted Porsche’s motion to dismiss the multi-billion dollar lawsuits filed against the company. The lawsuits, filed by Black Diamond and Elliot Associates representing a total of 39 plaintiffs, were ousted in their entirety but they have 30 days to appeal the dismissal of the case. Considering that there are billions of dollars at stake, we are likely to hear more about this over the next month.
Porsche eventually backed out of the 75% purchase of Volkswagen due to financial troubles of their own and shortly after, Volkswagen Auto Group went ahead and purchased a majority share of Porsche with intentions of acquiring the rest of the luxo-performance automaker in the near future.