In killing himself German billionaire Adolf Merckle has become the latest casualty of the global financial crisis, his family saying on Tuesday he was broken by the struggle to salvage their business empire. Merckle, who was the world's 94th-richest person in 2008 according to Forbes magazine, spent his life building a business conglomerate with about 100,000 employees. The empire was poised to come crashing down after his family made wrong-way bets on skyrocketing Volkswagen shares. The family has been under pressure to sell some assets or seek bridging loans and has been in talks with banks for weeks. “The desperate situation of his companies caused by the financial crisis, the uncertainties of the last few weeks and his powerlessness to act, have broken the passionate family entrepreneur and he took his own life,” a family statement said. Meanwhile, the German luxury sports carmaker Porsche has taken over Volkswagen, the biggest European car manufacturer, after purchasing more than 50 percent of VW shares, Porsche said late on Monday. Porsche said in a brief statement that by buying new VW shares, it “will thus increase its participation to 50.76 percent” of the group's capital, compared with 42 percent before. As a result, Porsche is now obliged by Swedish law to make an offer for outstanding shares in the heavy truck maker Scania, in which VW is the dominant shareholder. Little was publicly known about the father o four, who lived in the southwest German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg and was said to enjoy skiing and mountain-climbing. He received the German Federal Cross of Merit in 2005 for his achievements in fostering economic growth in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg. Market players said Merckle liked to keep a low profile and had seemed like a conservative investor.
