Harley-Davidson ownership

From CycleChaos
Revision as of 14:13, 23 August 2010 by Huntersthompson (talk | contribs) (Created page with "For a company approaching its 100th birthday, Harley-Davidson has had very little to do with stocks and shares. The reason is simple. For the first 60 years, it was owned by ...")
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Jump to navigation Jump to search

For a company approaching its 100th birthday, Harley-Davidson has had very little to do with stocks and shares. The reason is simple. For the first 60 years, it was owned by the Harley and Davidson families and only went public in 1965, when in dire need of fresh capital. AMF took over the whole thing in 1969, selling the company hack to the management team in 1981. Five years later, to raise more capital, Harley-Davidson finally went public again, and was Floated on the American Stock Exchange: in other words, anyone with enough funds could buy a few Harley shares, and lots of people did – not only traditional investors, but Harley-Davidson dealers, employees and riders. Some later admitted that they intended to sell the shares at a profit (they nearly tripled in value in four years) and buy a bike with the proceeds!