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After spinning out the LiveWire brand from the Harley-Davidson name earlier this year, the MoCo is getting ready to take its electric motorcycle company public on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

Harley-Davidson is taking LiveWire public (with the help of AEA Investors and Bridges Fund Management) through an interesting method called a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), which is a method of creating an IPO without going through all the work that such an endeavor usually entails.

Harley-Davidson has released its Q2 2021 earnings report, and the results are a bit mixed for the American brand. Compared to 2020’s numbers, Harley-Davidson is showing some unsurprising gains.

As such, the North American market is up 43% compared to last year, while worldwide results bounced to a 24% gain over 2020’s figures.

The story is the same for the first six months of sales for the Bar & Shield brand, with North America up 38% compared to last year, and worldwide sales getting an 18% increase.

All of this is to be expected, of course, not only because sales were down across the board in 2020, but also because the motorcycle industry is booming in 2021. In this regard, the bar of measurement for the Bar & Shield brand is rather low.

It was strange to see another press release from Ducati Motor Holding about the 2020 sales year - you would think that the Italian brand would like to forget about the 9.7% sales drop it reported for last year.

Like virtually every other motorcycle brand in the industry, last year was tough on unit sales, though there were some very promising trends later in the season. As such, everyone is trying to spin the events and put their best foot forward - Ducati included.

So while it is at least strange to see the Bologna brand touting its cash flow results for 2020, one can at least understand why they are doing so.

What is more interesting though are some of the tidbits Ducati released in the process, which shows an insight into the company's operations and trends.

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Harley-Davidson continues to hemorrhage motorcycle unit sales in 2020, with the Bar & Shield brand reporting an 8% loss worldwide on its third-quarter numbers.

This Q3 result means that Harley-Davidson is down 18% for the first nine months of the year, compared to the same point in time as last year.

The news isn’t all bad however, as Harley-Davidson is also reporting that the net income for the third-quarter was up 39% for a total of $120 million – the company’s highest Q3 income since 2015.

It has been a long sad road for Norton Motorcycles lately, and we apologize for not covering the complete debacle that has unfolded from this historic British marque.

That being said, it is hard to condense what has happened to Norton in the past few months, as well as the accusations that have been levied at the company’s CEO Stuart Garner; but cutting to the point, the company has gone bankrupt, which has lead to allegations of the mishandling of funds and even of fraud.

Now after a week of rumors regarding a pending sale, on Friday we got confirmation that Norton Motorcycles has been sold to TVS Motors, the third-largest two-wheeled manufacturer in India, with a price tag of $20 million.

Call it the Italian connection, as brake-maker Brembo has just bought a chunk of shares in Pirelli. As such, the move sees Brembo taking a 2.43% in the Italian tire brand.

Despite the surprise of the headline, the transaction has not a complete surprise to those following the actions of Brembo, as the braking brand announced last year its plans to go shopping in the corporate M&A realm.

Matteo Tiraboschi, Brembo’s Executive Deputy Chairman, even signaled last year that the the company’s appetite for acquisition could be as large Brembo itself.

No news is good news, at least as far as the current outbreak of COVID-19, or the coronavirus is concerned.

And for thirteen days – nearly two whole weeks – we went without a change to the calendars of either the WorldSBK and MotoGP calendars (ironically, that changed this morning).

Given the speed at which the world has changed over the past two weeks, that is almost an eternity in normal time. The same could not be said for other motorsport disciplines. For two weeks, we have been inundated with cancellations and postponements.

Well before the firing of Harley-Davidson CEO Matt Levatich (and it was a firing, no matter how much the Bar & Shield brand touts its “mutual decision” narrative), there has been a wrestling of control over the future of the iconic American motorcycle brand.

Dwindling share prices on the New York Stock Exchange necessitated a change of regime at Harley-Davidson, as shareholders saw a continued loss on their investment with the Milwaukee firm; and thus, a loss of confidence in management’s ability to run the company.

Now with Matt Levatich out and Jochen Zeitz taking on the role of interim CEO and President of Harley-Davidson, a new battle is being fought – what is known in the investing world as a proxy fight.