Audi Purchase Ducati For USD 1.1 Billion

Initially there was talk of Daimler AG looking to acquire the legendary Italian motorcycle maker Ducati Motor Holding SpA, but recently reiterated that it was never interested in the first place even though there was some sort of collaboration between Ducati and AMG. Turns out, it wasn’t Daimler but Audi instead.

Audi now looks all set to sign some papers and hand over the cash, about 860 million Euros (US$1.1 billion), to take ownership of Ducati  from Investindustrial SpA. It seems that a finalised agreement has been reached between Audi and Investindustrial for the sale of Ducati to go through, and VW’s supervisory board is keenly looking to approve the deal by today.

At first, it was VW’s Chairman, Ferdinand Piech who had expressed interest in buying Ducati back in April 2008 before loosing the bid  to Investindustrial. Currently, the deal looks as good as done, making Ducati the 11th brand within VW’s portfolio.

Why the sale to Audi? Because Ducati sold more than 42,000 of their bikes, bringing in a revenue of about 480 million Euros and most importantly – it would now enable the VW Group to compete head-to-head with Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW), which not only manufactures the BMW Motorrad line-up, but also Husqvarna motorcycles.

And so another iconic Italian brand will be headed into the clutches of ‘zee’ Germans, much like Lamborghini and Italdesign Giugiaro SpA, and there’s even rumours that Piech may still be interested in FIAT SpA’s Alfa Romeo brand.

Once the deal is done, we could possibly see an Audi or VW logo appearing somewhere on both Valentino Rossi’s and Nicky Hayden’s MotoGP Ducati racing bikes.

It seems that Audi’s timing for the acquisition of Ducati is excellent, with the Italian motorcycle manufacturer having just launched their 1199 Panigale – contributing more revenue for VW’s next acquisition perhaps?

As for us, there will be a media launch for the Panigale on the 19th April, so if you’re a Ducati fan or simply a fan of 2-wheeled crotch rockets, then stay tuned!

Source: Bloomberg

COMMENTS FROM PREVIOUS PLATFORM:

04-18-2012, 10:30 AM	#2
langsuyrx 200bhp Stage II Member Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Kay L Posts: 249 Likes: 16 Liked: 37 / 29 Posts	Re: Audi Purchase Ducati For USD 1.1 Billion maybe after this we can see Ducati R8 heheheh…
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04-18-2012, 12:07 PM	#3
DeaconFrost 150bhp Tuned Member Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Kuala Lumpur Posts: 158 Likes: 26 Liked: 109 / 39 Posts	Re: Audi Purchase Ducati For USD 1.1 Billion As demonstrated by our beloved old farts at Top Gear, Audi is incapable of subtle communication and in more than one occasion, is guilty of shoving their ads onto people’s faces. They are the opposite of BMW. Hopefully, Audi will honour Ducati and will not sabotage the brand by pasting an Audi sticker on Rossi’s bike. Would love to see technology transfer between them, similar to Toyota-Yamaha. Ducati will show how to make a small displacement short stroke engine that can rev to the moon, and Audi will put it in a new compact ‘eco-friendly’ car. Honda makes superbikes so they already know how to do that.
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04-18-2012, 01:22 PM	#4
amonrei 5bhp Stock Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 35 Likes: 0 Liked: 11 / 6 Posts	Re: Audi Purchase Ducati For USD 1.1 Billion So Ducati is worth slightly more than Instagram. ._.
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04-18-2012, 02:09 PM	#5
drMpower Senior Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 393 Likes: 0 Liked: 7 / 5 Posts	Re: Audi Purchase Ducati For USD 1.1 Billion i am waiting for azlan pingu to tell the world there is no synergy between making cars and motorcycles.
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04-18-2012, 02:17 PM	#6
shark79 600bhp Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Kuala Lumpur Posts: 671 Likes: 17 Liked: 127 / 72 Posts	Re: Audi Purchase Ducati For USD 1.1 Billion prob Ducati TT, no?
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04-18-2012, 02:52 PM	#7
alwjmonster 100bhp Junior Join Date: May 2009 Location: Subang Jaya Posts: 111 Likes: 0 Liked: 27 / 17 Posts	Re: Audi Purchase Ducati For USD 1.1 Billion Audi + Lambo + Ducati = Veyron Supersport Crusher.
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04-18-2012, 07:01 PM	#8
rageaccel2 50bhp Junior Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Shah Alam Posts: 59 Likes: 3 Liked: 9 / 7 Posts	Re: Audi Purchase Ducati For USD 1.1 Billion nice… surely Audi won’t smear the ducati brand. if theres anyone who knows about brand loyalty, its the germans. surely they will try to please & shows the ducatisti that the icon will never change under the new management.
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04-18-2012, 08:13 PM	#9
pwhyze 150bhp Tuned Member Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Kuala Lumpur Posts: 180 Likes: 9 Liked: 19 / 18 Posts	Re: Audi Purchase Ducati For USD 1.1 Billion Zee Germans have shown they do respect the heritage and tradition behind the foreign brands they’ve acquired through out the years (Lambo, Bugatti, etc..), so I”m expecting pretty much the same thing in this deal as well.
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04-19-2012, 04:57 PM	#10
detomaso_runna Senior Member Join Date: May 2005 Location: PeNAnG Posts: 388 Likes: 13 Liked: 28 / 16 Posts	Re: Audi Purchase Ducati For USD 1.1 Billion ducati and Audi. wonder what audi can invent for bike? drl bike? led? DSG???? huhu
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04-21-2012, 04:59 PM	#11
kUmUcHaI 11/1 300bhp Nitrous Member Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: JB – KL Posts: 310 Likes: 3 Liked: 49 / 34 Posts	Re: Audi Purchase Ducati For USD 1.1 Billion Haha…superbike with whole bunch of daytime running LED…haha. When you see LED at night…it wont be audi always…stayed away…it might be Ducati
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04-22-2012, 12:44 PM	#12
detomaso_runna Senior Member Join Date: May 2005 Location: PeNAnG Posts: 388 Likes: 13 Liked: 28 / 16 Posts	Re: Audi Purchase Ducati For USD 1.1 Billion Quote: Originally Posted by kUmUcHaI 11/1 Haha…superbike with whole bunch of daytime running LED…haha. When you see LED at night…it wont be audi always…stayed away…it might be Ducati hahahaha sometimes can be normal car with aftermarket led stripes. :p too many led thingy. i bet audi gonna came out with something new and put specially for ducati. we just wait and see. 😀
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