CFMoto

[WillowAce]

Although pure speculation there are some hints to CFMoto entering the snowmobile market. If they would in fact acquire Arctic Cat, would their current relationship with Yamaha bring some of the Yamaha DNA to Arctic Cat?

 

[RAMSOMAIR]

Nope. Yamaha is done in the SoMo biz I'd say.

 

[WillowAce]

Nope. Yamaha is done in the SoMo biz I'd say.

Nope. Yamaha is done in the SoMo biz I'd say.

Agree that we won't see a Yamaha branded sled again. However, is it possible that they would lean on those that were involved in snow line as consultants?

 

[earthling]

CF Moto is a manufacturing partner for Yamaha and a licensee of technology. They share two factories. If CFMoto were to buy arctic cat and Yamaha is truly done with the snowmobile business, then there is no reason that Yamaha would not license whatever CFMoto wants. Keep in mind that Yamaha is an engine design company having designed engines for Nissan, Toyota, Ford, and others. They would not just leave a deal on the table unless they felt that the CFMoto roadbike business is a threat to Yamaha's own but that is just a contract problem.

 

[WillowAce]

If CFMoto were to buy arctic cat and Yamaha is truly done with the snowmobile business, then there is no reason that Yamaha would not license whatever CFMoto wants.

Exactly my thoughts. Additionally, the Yamaha guys know the chassis and assume they had some input in the Catalyst chassis at some point. We'll never know what exactly happened leading up to Textron pulling the plug. I worked in fortune 500 finance for a long time. There are some hints that Textron made this decision a couple years ago. A new chassis takes awhile to develop and there is a lot of sunk costs in getting the project off the ground. In the end there isn't a new rear suspension and an attempt to release only a 600. That stinks of corporate pulling the R&D budget and trying to recoup some cost before jumping ship. If that is, in fact, the case I would guess Yamaha knew this was coming and part of the reason they exited the snow business. I would also bet that they were part of the initial design process and had ideas of how the 998 and maybe 1049 would fit into the Catalyst. What would stop CFMoto from leaning on the Yamaha relationship to complete the development and moving the 7000 and Thundercat into the Catalyst?

 

[earthling]

Priorities. The 600 market is largest, followed by the 800. CFMoto may want to iron out those problems first as the current 858 seems to have issues, at least the mountain guys are breaking them regularly. They additionally have their own (underpowered) high displacement 4 stroke. Nothing stops them outright but its not even worth considering until we know who ends up as the owner of AC.