VW chairman leaves post

FRANKFURT, Germany — Ferdinand Piech, chairman of the board of Volkswagen and a major figure in the German auto industry, has stepped down after clashing with other board members over his criticism of the company’s CEO.

Volkswagen said in a statement Saturday that Piech, 78, was resigning immediately. Piech had said in an interview with Der Spiegel published earlier this month that he was distancing himself from CEO Martin Winterkorn.

He did not publicly give a reason for his remark. Volkswagen is profitable and saw global sales pass the 10 million mark last year. But its core Volkswagen brand has struggled to hold down costs and to gain market share in the U.S.

Piech’s view on Winterkorn was rejected by other members of the board. The board’s six-member executive committee, which includes Piech, issued a statement April 17 saying Winterkorn, 67, was “the best possible” chief executive for Volkswagen.

German theaters in fight with Disney

BERLIN — Several hundred movie theaters in Germany have refused to screen the new “Avengers” film in a dispute over rental fees with Disney.

News agency dpa reported that 686 theaters in 193 mostly small towns refused to show “Avengers: Age of Ultron.”

It said the dispute was over a decision to raise the rental to 53 percent of ticket sales rather than the 47.7 percent usually charged to small-town theaters.

Karl-Heinz Meier of I.G. Nord, a group representing cinema operators in northern Germany, said it would have been prepared to go as far as a 50 percent fee. He added: “Disney will have to do without 686 screens on which the film would have been shown.”

Meier said moviegoers have expressed understanding.