It's Official: Harley-Davidson to Acquire MV Agusta!
Just over a month ago, rumors swirled around the possibility that Harley-Davidson, the 105 year-old motorcycling icon, might acquire MV Agusta, the ailing Italian sportbike manufacturer. For those of you who declared the possibility impossible, it's time to swallow your words.
Early this morning, Harley announced "the signing of a definitive agreement to purchase the Italian motorcycle maker MV Agusta Group. Under the agreement, Harley-Davidson will acquire 100 percent of MV Agusta Group shares for total consideration of approximately 70 million euros ($109 million), which includes the satisfaction of existing bank debt for approximately 45 million euros ($70 million)." The statement also mentions that MV's Claudio Castiglioni will retain his title of Chairman, and Design Chief Massimo Tamburini will keep leading the design studio.
The announcement mentions that Harley CEO Jim Ziemer "envisions the acquisition is intended primarily to expand Harley-Davidson, Inc’s presence and footprint in Europe, complementing the Harley-Davidson and Buell motorcycle families." After testing MV Agusta's six-figure flagship and sampling much of the Harley-Davidson lineup, I imagine this union could offer some intriguing possibilities for Italian-American motorcycles... what do you think?
Logo © Harley-Davidson
Click to enlarge
Comments
The association with Harley worked so well for Aermacchi. My guess is that history repeats.
I have to admit I am very curious to see what comes out of a marriage between an Italian exotic thoroughbred and a good ole USA plow horse.
History already has repeated itself in a manner of sorts… I think it was the Castiglioni brothers who bought Aermacchi from Harley back in the `70s.
Full circle.
Will this finally make it okay for ‘murican HD owners to venture into something more exotic? Will they even look or care? Being a motorcycle rider should be about expressing your individualism. If masses of HD owners do it than I guess it’s okay to express your individualism - if ya know whad I mean
Lets see:
Mercedes/ Chrysler.
Ford/ Jaguar…..
I don’t have high expectations.
My bet- in a few yeares people will be saying “MV Agusta …sounds familiar!?! Didnt they use to make….lawnmowers?”
Difficult to say what this means for the brand. Harley needs a larger footprint in the EU; MV Agusta needs cash to develop new product, let along keep going. There’s no reason for H-D to undercut the MV Agusta image (as it already has cred among luxury buyers), but getting a management team in place will be a challenge.
Buy MV Agusta?? Why! The future of heavyweight motorcycle is in a precarious predicament now with the recession, gas prices,etc. Better to keep those dollars here and plow them back into H-D than invest them abroad on an ailing high end motorcycle company.
Like Paris Hilton & Clint Eastwood married! The perfect mismatch bearded ponytail leather clad on an F4 UMMMM …( i ride both) so i can say that!!!!
I don`t know the reason for Harley to buy MV, but just maybe this will take all of the Harley money and this will drive the last nail in the Harley Coffin.
Wow!
Great…
Now I just hope HD stops assembling that bunch of iron they call a motorcycle and start making something worthwhile to look forward to.
Hell yes, I’ll buy an HD now!
Audi & Lamborghini is going decently.
Renault & Nissan appear to be doing well.
Then again, none of those are American companies… you might have a point……
there are several posible reasons for the HD takeover of MV agusta.
first of all,it was an absolute steal,excluding the debt you couldn’t even buy a company jet for that kind of money.
MV agusta was in a bad spot because last year they sold Husqvarna to BMW (for a lot more money) and the money was pocketed by an obscure bank in italy who had the controling shares,so mv was left with the debt and no way of developing new models.HD saw an oportunity and seized it
second of all although it is a small volume facotry the MV agusta has a lot of high tech (and expensive) technology and equipment,the manufactory process is licensed from porche(it s not masss production,it’s divided into teams,very symilar of the way they build jets,hely’s and other expensive low volume products)and a lot of the equipment can also be found in the ferrari factory since they had a close relation in the past(they helped develop the engine,that s why it has radial valves).also the design team of the group is probably the best in the industry,just licensing they’re work can bring milions in revenue anually
i hope hd understand that the whole apeal iof MV is it’s low volume high quality products,
(they started out way back making planes and hely’s and then spinned off into motorcycle.Agusta hely’s is pretty succesfull and respected in the industry,but they are separate entities,like Rolls Royce -the car- and rolls royce engines)
all in all it s a good thing,because if HD didn’t buy them,MV would be history
PS:it’s not lawnmovers it’s helycopters
I’ve got an idea that’ll work
One things for sure, add Harley to anything and it will slow it down.
Would someone out there explain to me how American Companies purchasing Debt, expect to show a profit.
Is this a good mix (HD-MV) or just reviving an old relationship?
n the present world of “Economic marriages”,ubbelievable fantasy can become a reality.”Augusta” was a thoroughbred motorcycle company, considered as unique a signature as “Rolls Royce” in the World of cars, hence its mereger with “Harley davidson” is truely remarkable.