German Luxury carmaker Audi, has acquired Italian sports motorcycle maker Ducati for $1.12 Billion. With this new acquisition Audi becomes the 12th brand under the Volkswagen Group which so far had only Passenger cars, Luxury and Exotics brands and commercial vehicles under its portfolio.
Audi now joins the Peugeot, Honda, Suzuki and BMW brands which make cars and two-wheelers. Seems like Audi-Ducati combo will now give the BMWs some real heat. Ducati will be the third pillar for the brand: Lamborghini and Italdesign the other two.
Ducati makes about 40,000 two-wheelers a year across its range of cruiser, supermoto, adventure, naked and superbikes that include the muscular Diavel and dual sport Hypermotard. By comparison, industry leader Honda sold over 16 million motorcycles last year.
Ducati is a globally active company and has manufacturing operations at its headquarters in Bologna and at its own factory in Thailand.
