, Columnist
VW's Last Surprise?
The automaker's valuation leaves little room for more surprises.
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Volkswagen is set to pay more than $15 billion (14 billion euros) to settle U.S. lawsuits and compensate drivers there for its rigging of diesel-emissions tests.
Even though that's about $5 billion above what the market anticipated, the shares rose more than 3 percent on Tuesday. That's doubtless because the deal will give investors at least some certainty about the scale of VW's liabilities. But even after taking that into account, the automaker's valuation still looks stretched.