How do two share holdings a major player make? Simple – look at VW’s car business model. Seat, Audi, VW – as well as Phaeton, Buggatti and co – are operated as separate brands, but with an increasing amount of synergy in terms of R&D, platform production and back office function such as finance.

“Volkswagen has an industrial interest in the truck business which is already underpinned by our investments in Scania, our Brazilian truck operations and our light truck activities. It is Volkswagen’s clear objective not only to guard these interests, but also to strengthen the potential,” says VW Chairman Pischetsrieder in the statement, which also details his worries about the deleterious effect of a hostile bid for either company.

Is VW guarding its investment here, or does it have a plan? And, for good measure, how will Pischetsrieder get Messer’s Östling and Samuelsson to play nicely?

This looks good and we like it. VW tends towards a fairly hands-off approach to its sub-brands, and so we expect a reasonable amount of business as usual. But, down the line, Platform is going to be the main game, and so we’ll guess that the components deal, canned earlier this year, will be back on again. Joint engine development – that’s a tough one to call.

Key to making everyone play nicely will be managing Scania’s transition from Vertical to Diagonal integration, and probably putting a bit more of a diagonal spin on MAN’s increasingly horizontal approach. Which network will get the VW LCV’s will probably split down to a country by country decision, but either dealer group will not be averse to having something else to sell. As far as business in the emerging markets goes, we expect VW’s Constellation to begin to appear in Eastern Europe and the CIS, possibly in selected Asian markets – Korea suggests itself – and South Africa. India remains a choke point, and is likely – we think – to get left alone.

In the final analysis, VW’s role seems to be to bang some heads together and to restore a bit of discipline. On the basis that Pischetsrieder doesn’t get his Phaeton hat on, we think that he could well be the man for the job. What DC and Volvo are making of all of this – we’ll be spending the afternoon in a warm glow of conjecture.