Volkswagen Interested in Ducati. Can you say Ja to that?
Despite some denials from the company itself, rumors continue to circulate in the Italian press that Volkswagen, looking to expand it’s ever growing empire, is targeting Ducati as a possible acquisition target.
Volkswagen (VW) is in an expansion mode, it’s most recent acquisition was Porsche. The drive for growth comes from board supervisory chairman and former CEO, Ferdinand Piech who wants the company to be the global automotive leader by 2018. At the recent Frankfurt Autoshow, Piech was reported to have said that he might pursue another two brands beyond Porsche with both Suzuki and Ducati rumored to be in the mix. Piech is the grandson of Ferdinand Porsche the designer of amongst other things the famous people’s car, the VW Beetle.
As ridiculous as this initially sounds, VW has targeted Ducati at least once before. Piech, a Ducati rider himself at age 72, was behind an attempt to take over Ducati in 1985 when the company was in the midst of a financial crisis. Although far healthier today after recovering from a period of unprofitability, largely due to the commercial failure of the 999 line, the current global economic recession has hurt the premium manufacturer with Ducati announcing production and salary cuts due to a global market for premium motorcycles that has contracted by 30 percent in the first half of 2009 and even more in USA.
Although VW have dismissed the rumors that they are interested in either Suzuki or Ducati the rumors persist and of course company denials when negotiations are at an early stage are not uncommon. Small volume motorcycle manufacturers, even premium ones, will struggle to remain independent (witness the recent sale of MV Augusta to Harley Davidson) so if both acquisitions were prosecuted there remains the possibility that much larger Suzuki could be merged with Ducati.
All of this speculation is fun but perhaps the biggest hurdle would be the Italian government which would naturally reluctant to let such an iconic brand go to foreign hands. However Ducati was owned by US based TPG for a time and there is the simple matter that VW already owns some brands that are iconic national symbols such as Bentley and Lamborghini. Lamborghini is probably a good analogy. An Italian performance icon, the new Gallardo range developed under VW has been extremely successful but it doesn’t quite have the same essence as the Murcielago, the last model designed before the takeover .
What do you think? Would Italian Ducati run by German VW be good news or a disaster for riders and fans? Chime in with your views in the comments section below.
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They own Lambo and that hasn’t seemed to hurt them. German engineering and Italian styling make quite a combo.
Are there any examples of companies that VW has bought that hasn’t benefited (in the long run) from the merger? Porsche might not, well at least the Panamera and Cayenne won’t.
My biggest concern is that VW has no experience in this area, but that’s not always a bad thing. I am on my 4th VW and think it has potential to be good for Ducati…
@Don, My understanding is that VW is doing quite well although they are coming out of a period where their platform sharing got a bit out of control and too many models were the same. But your point is well made. I think a VW Skoda is a whole different proposition from the older ones