lake karlsfelder see. bavaria. BY

 what a nice winter day at lake karlsfelder see ⛄🐋🐦🌞 

few pictures made by my wife ... the very first bird above as well, of course 😇

the weather changed a little bit. the sun went away. or was it still there behind clouds ⛅? who knows for sure? 

two of us 💕

well, karlsfeld is somehow special for me:

• it is really close to our home
• we have been many, many, many times here as friends of ours used to live there
• we never go swim there (have been just once or twice with our friends 20+ years ago)
• i've lost a friend & colleauge here due to motorbike accident🚑. heaven & hell, it was already 14 years ago ...
• we have visited the MAN trucks & busses factory at very special employees & friends celebration due to company's 250th birthday

btw, we know that girl. she's a friend of ours 😂

• i was a shareholder of MAN till it was taken over by volkswagen VW. enjoy a blog abt MAN's AGM many years ago
• there is a second lake out there in karlsfeld, the lake waldschwaigsee

few more pictures are here. you know what? i've have many more bavarian lakes for ya here 😇

eof

BMW ~ family day

BMW headquarters + the BMW museum in front in the small round building

friends & family day @ BMW in munich (milbertshofen, olympiazentrum) today. well, we have welcomed the chance to enter the factory space in order to see something very special ... we have probably expected too much fun + party feeling because of a similar event @ MAN 4 years ago (250 years celebration) ... it was more like a beer garden visit today with some car / motorcycle background with cars from the BMW family (rolls-royce, MINI, husqvarna, BMW) ... and even the prices were the usual munich's price level  ... 0.5 liter beer 3 €uro, 1/2 chicken 8.50 €uro and the like ... we have expected something like beer 1 euro, food 3 euro, a family day, you know? didn't the company earned billions recently? 2011 was an absolute record year, 2012 started even better ...

anyway, we have enjoyed the different atmosphere than during my work day spirit, met some friends, painted some walls, made some pictures ~ enjoy ;-)

unknown artist? radka?

MAN = trucks + buses + engines ... next AGM 2day

2011's AGM 2day: well, after volkswagen (VW) increased its share in MAN above the 30% level, the most important issue was the future cooperation between VW + MAN + SCANIA. my guess? sooner or later there will be no independent MAN. there will be just VW, wont it? the brand MAN will most likely operate as VW's 100% owned subsidiaries next to seat, skoda, porsche, audi, bentley, lamborghini ... of course its pity, just remember MAN is a really traditional bavarian company with over 250 years of history!

of course, there was a little bit abt MAN's business as well: a successful year is over, higher revenue, profit from operations, dividends, no. 1 market is china prolly because of the huge ship diesel engines sold there ... and yes, MAN went green! ecology, which basically means lower gas consumption) is the no. 1 issue :-)

lets show ya 2 of the products presented:

the next generation ecological / economical truck or just a future truck of the future?

hybrid (city) bus

what abt last years event? just follow this link 😇

what abt trucks? MAN's AGM

last thursday there was the 130th (or the like) AGM for the MAN shareholders. of course, there were many ups and downs in company's more than 250 years old history, the recent corruption and power struggle scandal was just the latest sad episode ... well, volkswagen's (VW) almighty rowdy god ferdinand piëch won again and the former soooo sympathetic and sooooo succesful CEO hakan samuelsson lost his job :-(

i was very interested abt MAN's outlook for the future, so i accepted to endure hearing to grandpa piëch's soooo slow and soooo boring speach (besides his VW functions he is also the chairman of the advisory board @ MAN because of VW's 29% stake in MAN) and been there from the very start. MAN's business decreased in 2009 by approx 30% as in the financial crisis out there, both the car (trucks & buses) + the diesel engines (ships & power plants, esp. solar energy power plants) divisions suffered badly. thx to samuelsson's lead MAN managed to make a small profit anyway, there will also be a small dividend at my account on monday ... btw, did you know that more than 50% of all ship transportation worldwide is driven by MAN diesel power engines? well, as ive expected the economy prospects are still baaaad, baaaaad, baaaad :-(

damn! what is the motivation for the already 73 years old millionaire/billionaire piëch (btw, he is the grandson of the great ferdinand porsche, who has already in 1899 constructed an electric car) not to slow down, not to simply enjoy his life, not to let other folks continue his work and run 'his' car imperium? it is s.th. tied-up with his tough battlesome character, isnt it?

im not sure if my list of volkswagen's holdings (often 100% or some other major stake) is complete, but its a lot anyway:

• audi
• bentley
• bugatti
• lamborghini
• MAN
• scania
• seat
• skoda
• suzuki
• porsche
• volkswagen 

useful links:

• company website: MAN 
• last year's event: same place, different time :-)
• my MAN involvement: xmas shopping orgy ;o)
• ohhhhh, i have found a link (source: wikipedia) abt former + present brands of volkswagen group, there are also 5 inactive marques via Audi AG => enjoy 

MAN's 129th AGM in 251st company's year

hell, what a difference to siemens or bmw! there was a short organisational speech from the head of supervisors board, a short speech from the CEO, just 5 shareholders asking questions, all decisions agreed by 85+ percent of votes, the most of them with a majority of 99+ percent ...

folks, that was the company with the highest profit among all dax30 'competitors' in 2008 !!!

something else about the annual general meeting? well, the catering was fine, i drunk a lot of coffee and eat some funny vegetarian dish with an extra portion of spicy, spicy, spicy sauce as someone else withdraw the top cover which was designed to portion the amounts of that devil's stuff falling on each plate ;o))

what about the MAN prospects in 2009? well, the trucks + buses will suffer a lot, the wind energy + diesel engines sector could outperform even under that crazy market conditions ...

next AGM? same place (icm, messegelände münchen) on april, 1st 2010. it is not a joke, see u there?