When Ferdinand Piech took charge of Volkswagen AG (VOW) 20 years ago, the carmaker was losing almost 1 billion euros ($1.24 billion) with its sales tied to the fortunes of the European economy.

Yesterday, the 75-year-old VW chairman capped a spurt of dealmaking with a 4.46-billion euro agreement to buy the rest of Porsche SE’s automaking business, a transaction that will extend the German company’s lead as the world’s most profitable automaker. VW generated a record 11.3 billion euros in operating profit in 2011. Read more