Audi AG has released its 2012 Interim Financial Report, and in it the German automaker has released some interesting details about its acquisition of Ducati Motor Holding. Confirming our report that the Audi Group has bought 100% of Ducati’s shares, Audi however discloses that it paid much less for the Italian motorcycle brand than was previously reported.
Disclosing a buying price of €747 million ($980 million at the exchange rate at the time of sale), perhaps the most interesting news in Audi’s report is that Ducati was actually bought by Lamborghini, making Ducati a subsidiary of the boutique Italian car-maker. This news would explain Ducati CEO Gabriele del Torchio’s appointment to the Lamborghini Board of Directors earlier last month.
While Lamborghini’s ownership of Ducati is more of a formality, as both brands are still controlled by the Audi Group (read: Audi itself), the move does have two important aspects: one symbolic and one pragmatic. First symbolically, Ducati remains under some guise of Italian control, which in nationalistic Europe still counts for something…as ridiculous as it sounds to the rest of us.

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