To take but one example, VDO has long been a strong player in fuel injectors that improve fuel economy, while Continental has invested heavily in the software and hardware that calibrates and controls the injectors.Īnd, Wennemer added, strategic planners at Continental have been plotting a takeover and integration of VDO since 2001 in the hopes that Siemens, the conglomerate based in Munich, would divest itself of its auto parts business. The products will, quite literally, fit together.
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Wennemer has the advantage that much of the former Siemens division's business is in Germany, and it is full of engineers who are familiar with what Continental produces. "We have a difficult process ahead of us to keep what we have in terms of technology and above all people, but also to make the changes we need to work well together," Wennemer said during an interview at his headquarters in Hannover. The acquisition also vaults Continental - an unremarkable tire manufacturer only a decade ago - into the front ranks of the auto parts industry just as it is entering a period of consolidation.
That is especially true in Germany, where DaimlerChrysler is in the process of becoming Daimler again. Wennemer now faces the challenge of integrating a company almost as big as his own at a time when such transformational deals are out of favor. Judging from his harried demeanor, exhausted slouch and a recent schedule that seemed exceptionally packed even by CEO standards, the deal making may have been the easy part. HANNOVER, Germany - Soon after Manfred Wennemer, chief executive of the German auto parts maker Continental, clinched an €11.4 billion deal for Siemens VDO late last month, he hustled off to a vacation in France for a little rest.
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