Ferdinand Piëch, the 75-year-old German automotive patriarch and Porsche heir on Wednesday, April 18, added the latest hood ornament to his stable -- albeit that of a motorcycle maker -- with the acquisition of Italy's Ducati Motor Holding SpA.

Volkswagen's Audi AG luxury unit will pay a reported €860 million ($1.13 billion) to buy Ducati from Italian private equity firm Investindustrial Holdings SA.

Audi's well-publicized bid for Ducati found little backing from analysts, who said the deal would distract VW management from more important tasks. But analysts also noted that the Wolfsburg, Germany-based company has had success with waning luxury brands -- VW revitalized legendary Italian sports car manufacturer Lamborghini, and it also bought ultra-luxury sedan makers Bentley and Bugatti.

Founded in 1926 and now headquartered in Bologna, Ducati builds racing-inspired, high-performance motorcycles for both racing and road use. Private equity firm TPG Capital (then Texas Pacific Group) acquired a 51% stake in the company for $325 million in 1996 and three years later bought most of the remaining shares to become the sole owner. In the frothy markets of 1999 TPG took Ducati public. In December 2005 it sold one share less than a 30% stake in Ducati to Milan-based Investindustrial, keeping about a 3% stake.

Investindustrial took Ducati private in 2006. By then the motorcycle manufacturer was flailing, and Piëch later publicly bemoaned not then scooping up the company at a discount.

Investindustrial said it was able to boost Ducati's Ebit from €5 million in 2006 to €51 million last year. Ducati reported 2011 revenue of €480 million on the sale of 42,200 bikes. It employs 1,135 at plants in Italy and Thailand.

"Ducati has thrived with us as a result of the intensive industrial turnaround and the commercial push into new, fast-growing markets," said Investindustrial chairman Andrea Bonomi in a statement.

Speculation about a Ducati sale first emerged in February when Investindustrial reportedly began weighing either a Hong Kong listing or an auction for the company.

India's Hero MotoCorp Ltd. confirmed its interest in Ducati as Indian carmakers look abroad for technology and expertise. Germany's Daimler AG was also seen as a potential suitor based on a two-year-old marketing partnership with Daimler's performance-modification unit, AMG.

Investindustrial took legal counsel from Studio Chiomenti Legale.