Italian motorcycle manufacturer Ducati is being put up for sale, and American motorcycle manufacturer Harley-Davidson is a potential buyer, according to a report published today by Reuters (http://www.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-ducat…).

Volkswagen, which owns Audi, which owns Ducati, is looking to sell Ducati for up to $1.67 billion and use that money to fund a strategic restructuring of Volkswagen following its devastating global emissions scandal, according to the report which cites unnamed sources.

An investment company called Evercore is handling the sale for Volkswagen, according to Reuters, and Harley-Davidson has retained Goldman Sachs to work on their end of the deal. 

However, several other entities, including investment firms like Ducati’s previous owner Investindustrial and other motorcycle manufacturers like India’s Bajaj Auto, are considering acquiring Ducati.

Harley-Davidson unsuccessfully tried to go down this same path not long ago.

In August of 2008, Harley-Davidson bought Italian motorcycle manufacturer MV Agusta (which was privately owned by the Castiglioni family) for $108 million, including $69 million in assumed debt, according to a press release issued by Harley-Davidson at the time (https://www.roadracingworld.com/news/harley-davidso…).

One year later, Harley-Davidson put MV Agusta up for sale. 

After a year of trying to offload MV Agusta, Harley-Davidson finally sold MV Agusta back to the Castiglioni family in 2010 for about $3.00 but with $20 million of capital still in MV Agusta’s bank accounts, according to an article appearing in Milwaukee’s Journal Sentine newspaper (http://archive.jsonline.com/blogs/business/1007594…). So essentially, Harley-Davidson paid the Castiglioni family $20 million to take the company back.