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Buell’s Future No Longer Uncertain
Last month, I wrote an article claiming that Buell’s future was uncertain, as a signifigant number of Harley-Davidson execs were leading a charge to eliminate the brand from the MoCo’s line-up.
Writing that story made me very unpopular in the Buell world for a few days.
Today, it became public knowledge that Buell is, indeed, on the chopping block. Harley Davidson is discontinuing the brand and shutting down Buell’s operations.
It’s a sad day, I think, to see a company that had so much promise destroyed by the squandering of the opportunities it presented.
I fail to see how it is a good business decision to discontinue the brand rather than attempt to sell it. The 10 year Rotax contract was bought out at significant expense to HDI. It will be interesting to see if any of the Buell innovations, patents, or tooling will be bundled with the sale of MV Agusta.
Not really. It’s a charge-off, so they’ll just deduct it from their tax bill. Won’t cost them a dime. Selling it would mean more revenue, on which taxes would have to be paid.
Pretty easy decision, actually.