RumorVille: This Week’s Rumors - Mar 2010 |
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File under Rumors
Author: Mike Werner
Location: Normandy, France
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At times I think our motorcycle industry is more rife with rumors than fact. Let's see what has been going on this week:
1. BMW to buy MV Agusta
This appeared late last week, and it has BMW taking MV Agusta off the hands of cash-strapped Harley-Davidson. Harley has mentioned several times that they are looking for a potential suitor for their daughter, and whoever pays the handsome dowery, gets to marry the girl.
Problem is, BMW have got Husqvarna already as a separate brand, and have a high performance motorcycle on the market. Buying MV Agusta would serve only one purpose, and that is to kill off the brand; less competition for their own supersports.
It would be funny though to have Husqvarna and MV Agusta reunited again under the same umbrella;... but highly unlikely...
30% probability!
2. Tom Cruise crashes his Ducati motorcycle
On Oscar day, it was reported that Tom Cruise crashed his Ducati motorcycle while trying to avoid hitting a SUV that had ran a stop sign. According to the report, Cruise was slightly injured, limping away from the crash.
On its own, it will not be the first time Cruise has dropped his motorcycle (probably not his last either), but his publicist has denied the report, saying that Cruise has not been on two wheels for days. Despite a photo of the crashed bike, it's a bit of a stretch, unless the rumor was started by Cruise himself to draw away some attention of the Oscars...
40% probability!
3. Ducati and Piaggio to merge
The latest beauty is that Piaggio and Ducati are to merge. Piaggio, owner of brands like Aprilia, Vespa, Derbi and others, would merge their companies with Ducati.
Ducati have been plagued with ownership changes for years now, every few years, they are sold/bought, and have a management change. If Piaggio are to merge with Ducati, then they have two motorcycle brands that are in direct competition, Aprilia and Ducati. Not a smart move.
So, despite rumors, it's very unlikely that these two Italian mastodons are to merge... it would mean one Italian supersport motorcycle two many in the stable.
20% probability!
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