It's not over till the rich German guy sings...(Piech content)

["Matt & Jenai" <matjen@xsite.net>]

This is from today's WSJ.  Looks like VW is going to give BMW a fight over
RR.  Note that BMW is already threatening to breach its engine contract with
RR:

 Volkswagen AG has approached Vickers PLC about raising its bid for Vicker's
Rolls-Royce Motor Cars unit.  "We are aware that VW has spoken to Vickers
about entering another bid," Graham Morris, chief executive of the British
luxury auto maker, said late Tuesday.
 <snip>
A day earlier, Vickers had said it entered into a preliminary agreement to
sell Rolls-Royce Motor Cars to Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, one of VW's
German rivals. Under the terms of that agreement, Vickers has entered a
three-to-four-week period of exclusive negotiations with BMW. A Vickers
spokeswoman said the company wouldn't discuss rival offers unless talks with
BMW break down.
<snip>
German newspapers reported that VW Chairman Ferdinand Piech is willing to
pay as much as 1.7 billion German marks ($919.9 million), 200 million marks
more than VW's original offer. VW declined to comment on the reports, but
Mr. Morris cast doubt on the figure, noting that it was significantly higher
than BMW's cash offer of 340 million pounds ($570 million).
Earlier Tuesday, BMW threatened to bring production of Rolls-Royces and
Bentleys to a halt if Vickers shareholders spurned BMW's bid. "If they're
willing to take responsibility for that, let them do it," BMW Chairman Bernd
Pischetsrieder told a news conference, repeating a threat to stop supplying
Rolls-Royce with engines for its cars if the company is bought by one of
BMW's competitors. BMW is the sole supplier of engines for the latest Rolls
and Bentley models.
Mr. Morris, in Berlin for a presentation of Rolls-Royce's new Silver Seraph,
the first all-new Rolls-Royce in 18 years, said of Mr. Pischetsrieder's
threat: "We still have a contract, and we expect that contract to be
fulfilled."

Matt Pfeffer