Harley-Davidson buys MV Agusta
Harley-Davidson AND MV Agusta
Harley-Davidson, the quintessential American bike marque from Milwaukee, is to buy two of Italy’s most famous brands, MV Agusta and Cagiva, for £56 million; the deal is expected to be completed in a few weeks.
Claudio Castiglioni, whose family owns the MV Group, will stay on as chairman, as will MV’s chief designer, Massimo Tamburini, so an MV Fat Boy rolling down the street is, thankfully, not a sight we’re likely to some across soon.
The MV Agusta F4-R motorcycle, powered by a 1078cc in-line four-cylinder liquid cooled engine, is rated at 190kW. The company sells its products through about
500 dealers worldwide, the vast majority of them in Europe.
In 2007, MVAG shipped 5,819 motorcycles but this year the company has significantly slowed production due to financial difficulties.
Hopefully this will give MV AGUSTA the money and the great “Harley-Davidson” backing it needs in order to compete with Ducati in the U.S.A