The story is even better than that.

VW bought bought the Rolls Royce/Bentley company and factory. Something went wrong and they didn't end up with a licence to use the Rolls Royce name.

Then BMW came along and bought the licence to use the Rolls Royce name. It went something like that anyway.

http://www.autointell-news.com/News-2002/September-2002/September-2002-1/September-04-02-p10.htm

Edit:

Some more detail on what happened here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/main.jhtml?xml=/motoring/2003/01/03/emfrol104.xml

I like this bit: "VW's lawyers look over what they have purchased with growing alarm. They approach BMW to see if the supply of designated parts such as air-conditioning systems will be continued. BMW refuses. Piech and Pischetsrieder then have several secret meetings to negotiate a deal."