Amid the speculation about whether VW will survive Diesel Gate’s 500,000 to 11,000,000 (You read that number right. 11,000,000 vehicles and at least $9B!) firmware-hacked vehicles has been a little guesswork about which of the company’s many funky brands will be spun off or scrapped (Volkswagen’s 12-brand behemoth under scrutiny as costs of scandal mount). VW/Audi owns a lot of silly shit, not just Ducati but Porsche, Lamborghini, Bentley, Bugatti, Scania, MAN, Skoda and Seat (truck brands). It is pretty obvious from looking at that list that a whole lot of VW’Audi’s holdings are more about prestige than profit. With billions of $ and euros and £ on the line, a whole lot of people and assets are going to be put on the auction block. Since the VW CEO’s exit won’t be saving the company any money, after he launders his $67M golden parachute, somebody is going to have to bite the bullet and the obvious place to cut costs will be on non-profitable hobby businesses: like Ducati. Who knows? Audi might even have to sell it’s soccer team.
Ducati has always been some rich guy’s hobby store. A “business” makes money and Ducati has never been profitable. Like recording studios, Ducati is a black hole in which to toss your trust fund. VW/Audi, however, is a business and without those billions of spare cash to toss around, I think Ducati is about to end up in the hands of another idle rich kid.
