Italian Renaissance?
Bonjourno Americanos!
By now I’m sure that you’ve heard that Harley-Davidson is in the process of buying the Italian motorcycle company MV Agusta for a reported 108 million dollars. I’m sure that makes the couple hundred employees that Harley just laid off feel real good. I have empathy for them because someone in China, Brazil or Mexico is now doing the jobs I did for Eljer Industies for the last twenty-one years.
Oldtimers like myself will remember that back in the 60s and 70s Harley and AMF/Harley-Davidson had a line of lightweight bikes that were produced in Italy by Aermacchi. For many reasons the bikes lost favor with consumers and in 1978 AMF/H-D finally sold the Aermacchi factory to the brothers Castigioni.
Some thirty years later in a case of what goes around comes around H-D is buying a large chunk of the Italian company, Cagiva, which builds the MV Agusta motorcycles. Until recently they also used to own the Ducati and Husqvanra marques. Who’s the owners of Cagiva? Can you say hello Claudio Castigioni, again?
My only question about the whole deal is “Can my neighbor now get parts for his 1974 Rapido at the local Harley shop again?”
Ciao !
23/07/2008 at 2:02 pm Permalink
When I heard this almost two weeks ago I thought it was a joke. I’d heard something was in the works, but never really thought it was for real. MV Agusta is a European high-performance motorcycle company and Harley is the American cruiser motor company (for the most part).
Their differences aside, I guess it makes sense. It will allow Harley to get a better handle on the European market, where from what I hear, they’re doing quite well already. Who wouldn’t with the US dollar dropping like a rock to the euro. It will also allow Harley to “borrow” some of Agusta’s high-performance experience and apply it to their Buell brand.
However it pans out, it’s a good thing. Except I hear The Motor Company will be paying most of this in credit. That could be a bad decision down the road.
23/07/2008 at 5:40 pm Permalink
So I assume you will be at Sturgis? Me and my grandson plan on being there. He has a blog. Not sure the address, but I’ll have him send it to you so you can read it. I’ve been reading Ironworks for years. Dennis was a good man, but Marilyn has done a great job with the magazine. I see she still gets around. Saw her comments on Cyril Huze’s blog the other day. Glad to see this blog started. Found it mentioned on the news site my grandson setup for me. What did we do without the internet?
24/07/2008 at 8:24 am Permalink
MV is in the same building as Aermacchi was located, is this Karma?
I also heard that H-D was exploring the purchase of Enfield- Madras India Enfield- to enable them a toe-hold as an MC MFG in the Indian market- same reason they purchased MV Agusta, to be a Eurpopean MC MFGer.
Bruce Wayne- aka Batman- rides an MV Agusta briefly in the new Dark Knight film (which I think was really great!!!)
The thing with H-D is that there is really NO ONE H-D, plenty of really great and talented people, and of course a few people that are not so much fun to be with.
As a public company they do what they do to make $$- hire, fire, buy, sell. pretty basic.
But I think they have done a great job of bringing H-D back from the brink!!
my 2 cents.
24/07/2008 at 8:29 am Permalink
Like AMF bought Harley in 1967, Proton bought MV Agusta in 2004 and the same sad marriage occurred. Proton paid $70 million for MV Agusta and sold it for 1 euro in 2006. With declining sales, Proton would have been subject to 3 times their debt if MV Agusta has fallen into bankruptcy.
Proton is a huge Malaysia company. Check out the cars they make. No wonder the big 3 are in trouble:
http://www.proton.com/showroom/showroom_high.php
Some info on MV Agusta from CNN Money 7-11-2008:
“MV Agusta is considerably smaller than Harley-Davidson, which has nearly half the U.S. market. The company has about 500 dealers worldwide, the majority of them in Europe, and in 2007 it shipped 5,819 bikes.
Harley-Davidson shipped 330,619 bikes last year and has a network of about 1,300 dealers.
In the U.S., MV Agusta has about 45 dealers that sold 330 bikes last year.
Harley-Davidson noted MV Agusta significantly slowed production this year due to financial difficulties.
MV Augusta’s bikes are considered premium, high-end bikes and typically sell in a range of about $14,495 to $24,995 in the U.S. Some sell for even more, with special editions fetching $120,000. In the upcoming Batman movie “The Dark Knight”, Bruce Wayne _ Batman’s alter ego _ will ride a new MV Agusta F4 superbike.
Harley-Davidson’s bikes range from $6,695 to $34,995, with the average about $15,000.”
I’ll bet the MV Agusta dealers are squirming….
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