It was really just 35 words that announced the ends of two careers at Porsche: "In the last weeks Wiedeking and Härter have come to the conclusion, that the further strategic development of Porsche SE and Porsche AG is better off, if they are not on board as acting persons." And so, effective immediately, they aren't. The man who would be was king, Wendelin Wiedeking, and his majordomo CFO Holge Härter, have retired from Porsche with immediate effect.

The move was said to clear the way for Porsche to merge with VW and provide some relief for Porsche's balance sheet. After the same meeting that decided Wiedeking's fate, Porsche announced that it planned to increase its capital by €5 billion (about $7.1B U.S.). That's a big chunk of change, but it's only about a third of the company's debt load, and officials didn't say whether that figure would come from banks, Qatar, or some other investor. Wiedeking's position will be filled for now by supervisory board member and former head of production Michael Macht.

For severance, Wiedeking will get half of the package recently mentioned, a still-healthy sum of €50M ($71M U.S.). He has already pledged half of that money to a charity that will assist in job creation in Germany. Härter will receive €12.5M ($17.8M). Wiedeking, of course, hasn't said anything about where he might go from here, but at only 56 and with his story, we have a feeling we'll see him in the saddle again before long.