The motorcycle industry has been set into a small frenzy as some rumours surfaced today, pointing to a new mega-deal being finalized. American company Tenneco is said to be interested in buying Swedish suspension specialists Öhlins for an amount that might reach RM670.477.293 (160 million dollars).
Tenneco wants to get back into the suspension business after they sold Marzocchi in 2015 to VRM group, a decision that let Marzocchi survive what seemed, at the time, a path to closing its doors to business.
Öhlins, on the other hand, is the leading suspension brand for the automotive industry, motorcycles included of course, and the Swedish brand is very sought after by motorcycle manufacturers and riders around the world for their race-derived suspensions and technology. Most MotoGP teams are using Öhlins units, and that shows how good the golden suspensions are, not to mention we can see many motorcycle manufacturers choosing Öhlins to fit their suspensions on road-going models.
Their latest developments on semi-active suspensions and electronically controlled suspensions seem to be the catalyst for Tenneco’s decision, and even though the deal hasn’t been made official, rumours from insiders give the deal as good as done.
Kenth Öhlin, founder and owner of Öhlins, started collaborating with Tenneco back in 1998 in electronically controlled suspensions, and at the time he had lost part of his company to Yamaha. Later, Kenneth bought the shares from Yamaha in 2007 and became Öhlins 95% shareholder, and now he might be setting another deal which could see him become a minority shareholder of his company.
What will happen to Öhlins if Tenneco buys the company is a mystery, but given the experience both companies have on the development of electronic suspensions, we believe they’ll surely be thinking on the next step of the evolution of these components so specific to motorcycles.