ferdinand piech has resigned. . chad, why did piech lose this time? chad: good morning. it seems that he simply miscalculated. he had a history of running this company for two decades. he was used to getting his way. he pushed out other executives when they didn't follow what he wanted. he thought he could do that in this case. the difference is that martin winterkorn was in a position of strength. volkswagen last year reported record profit and record sales. mr. winter corn was able to line up the other power players on the nonexecutive board that runs the company. essentially the labor leaders. even some of mr. piech's own relatives, including wolfgang porsche, his cousin. they all backed mr. winterkorn. guy: let's talk about mr. piech's strategy. he has acquired all kind of businesses. ducati, they run a group that makes everything from the soft to golf to all kind of other cars. he built an empire. the stock is up today. is that because there is no more empire building? chad: that's exactly why the stock is up today. he did create a 12-brand empire. he started in the

piech said i'm distancing myself. very few details.asn't clear exactly what he was on odds with mr. winterkorn on but the assumption is the costs. vw has been extremely successful in really boosting their volume. we saw record sales last year but the costs continue to increase and people are very concerned about that. they are also concerned about slow investment into the united states and people that haven't seen growth of that name sake in that vw brand in the u.s. market. as we know winterkorn is getting to the end of his tenure. his contract expires at 2016. there's been quite a bit speculation what happens next. who may take over. on the other side a lot of speculation he could stay beyond 2016 and if he doesn't, the initial thinking he would take over from piech when he was expected to step oun. it's a really interesting element is how we've seen the revolt since those were made. his own cousin said this is not the family policy. he's saying he did not consult us. he's very much out on his own in this stance and then of course we

up to this point, ferdinand piech has gotten what he wanted.s like he is playing a losing hand. jonathan: you will be a busy man. hans nichols, our international correspondent. as we head to the break, let's check on equity markets. record high closes for the stoxx 600, the ftse, and the dax. off by 17 points on the ftse in london. the dax stilwell north of 12,000 points. the best week for european stocks last week since january. the euro showing a little more weakness against the dollar this morning. join us after the break. we are going to talk u.k. politics. ♪ jonathan: let's bring the conversation back to the u.k. big day in the election race. guy johnson and anna edwards join me now for a little more. first you, anna. labor unveiling its manifesto. are we expecting any fireworks? anna: there will be a few things we do know about. one thing is trying to take on the mantle of fiscal responsibility from the conservatives. that is something labor are going to try to achieve. pledging to narrow the u.k. budget deficit every year. they want to r

piech's backing? kevin: technically, yes. but it would be difficult because his contract is up before piech is out. mark: thank you so much. we are hearing that the meeting is over and we do not have any word yet about the outcome. bloomberg television will continue to follow the story and bring you updates as soon as we get them. coming up, a big day in the ipo market. we hear from the ceo of virtu financial. that and more when "bottom line" continues in a moment. ♪ mark: the u.s. ipo market got a shot in the arm after shares of a high frequency trader jumped in their trading debut. virtu financial raised $314 million in an initial public offering. ceo douglas cifu is with bloomberg's ipo reporter leslie picker. leslie: thank you. a year ago, michael lewis published "flash boys and set off a spiraling effect. was there a misconception now that you have debut to successfully a year later? how has that changed over the course of the year? douglas cifu: like we told people, it was a great year. it enabled us to be transparent.

piech was the ceo. now he is chairman of the board.r the weekend, we had pieckh's cousin, wolfgang porsche. he came out in firm support of martin winterkorn. he said, dr. piech represents his private opinion. content and faxed have not been coordinated with the family. you look at those offspring of ferdinand porsche. they control about five seats on the board. two of them are with the piech line -- three of them, excuse me. there are a total of 20 seats on that board. 10 of them are by the works council. another two are by the lower saxony state. you add that up, you get about 14 votes for martin winterkorn. he appears to have enough backing to go on. the criticism is, why hasn't he done more to promote sales in the u.s.? winterkorn himself has put in the namesake brand of volkswagen a big cost-cutting structure. they want to see profitability go from 2.5% to 6% by 2018. sales per, right around 10 million. one thing to look at, the stock up 37% this year, although it is down on this news. guy: thank you very much, hans nichols joining

piech continued to talk to people in the company in a push to have mr. winter tour removed. it was at this time that the top leaders and the company, including the ownership stake and also his very own cousin and they called a meeting. this meeting took place over the weekend, and they basically said to him that at this point, the game is up and that he had to go, and also his wife also was forced to step down from the board. manus: are we closer to understanding why he went? why he set this train in motion. you said, as you suggest there, some of you like to get his way and when a ceo got in his way he got them out of his way. why did he set this train in motion? reporter: that is really be million dollar question, and when you talk to people at the company, they really cannot answer it. volkswagen is having some problems. a are struggling a bit in the u.s. market. their profitability is not as high as they would like. that said, volkswagen as an entire company had record sales revenue last year, record profits last year, and this year, the company under the leadership is s

we say porsche you say porsche, but what we can see is piech out the door. olivia: at v.w.e of thrones. tom: this is not the lannisterss, but it's close. help us with the back story of a struggling v.w. francine: this is an amazing story. just a reminder, ford and some of your big carmakers make around 3.7 million units a year. this is a company that makes 10 million. so it's close to surpassing toyota as the biggest carmaker in terms of units provided. this is a chairman that has picked battles at the past, done a fairly good job. he's picked battles in the past, which he's won. and this time he lost, which is why he's had to step down. what this means, though, is that a lot of investors are saying this opens the door to v.w. volkswagen of now entering the u.s. market in a more aggressive way, actually making cars that the u.s. market will buy. margins are not great, but it's actually selling cars, not so in the u.s., because you don't like those cars. olivia: oh we like the porsches. tell us about this hsbc story going on this morning. shares up by about 5%. we heard on f

i think the death of ferdinand piech has been widely exaggerated had the last time he did this, supervisory him and fired him a couple of months later. this guy is the most powerful auto-making ceo in world history. he is ferdinand's porche's grandson. he pushed through the 917, which no one wanted to do, and it is now one of the greatest race cars of all time. when he's a something nasty about a ceo running volkswagen people listen. carol: the guy he wants to get rid of -- he is led the company to record profits. matt: guess what, subaru outsells volkswagen in america? they're not doing well. betty: 32 days -- the last time there was an all-time high for u.s. stocks. the s&p had averaged a day between highs. equity indexes from asia to europe have climbed to multi-your highs in recent days. today, however, not so much. all right, mike reagan put it well today. we have gone so greedy. we are used to these record highs in stocks and here we are, about one month without it, and we are feeling like, what is going on here. carol: it has also been three years since we have nothing a full 10% cor