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.
<!--more-->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.
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
