Not even the profitable Cayanne is helping Porsche now.

Recently Porsche has been aggressively attempting to acquire Volkswagen, seeking to become the world’s largest automaker (a goal also coveted by Fiat’s Sergio Marchionne). However, after buying the most recent chunk of VW assets, Porsche finds itself badly in the hole … and is forced to beg for a loan from VW. It’s an amazing turn of events between two companies with headstrong leaders with large egos. What does it mean? Porsche’s drive to own VW is effectively over, and Porsche is now in danger of being subsumed into VW itself.

The emergency loan is for $977 million dollars to continue Porsche’s regular operations. VW is currently flush, and even though Porsche has attempted to raise funding frum a Quatari investment firm, it’s not enough to continue buying VW assets. We’ll stay tuned for any developments.

[Source: NYT]