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Ducati Motor Holding S.p.A. has its headquarters in Bologna, Italy. It is the motorcycle-manufacturing subsidiary of the parent company Ducati which is owned by the German-owned Audi via its Italian ancillary, Lamborghini. This, in turn, is owned by the Volkswagen Group.

The company came into being in 1926 through the efforts of Antonio Cavalieri Ducati. His sons, Adriano, Marcello, and Bruno Cavalieri Ducati founded when they established as the Società Scientifica Radio Brevetti Ducati in Bologna. The primary purpose of the company was to produce radio components such as condensers and vacuum tubes. This took off well, and in 1935, they were able to set up a construction factory in an area in the city known as Borgo Panigale. The company went through a major challenge during WWII since it was repeatedly targeted. Nevertheless, production went on undeterred.

Meanwhile, Aldo Farinelli of SIATA, based in Turin, Italy set to work on a small pushrod engine called Cucciolo (puppy) which was to be mounted on bicycles. A month after Italy was declared liberated in 1944, SIATA declared they were selling the engine. The initial engines were sold independently but the business people who bought them included them in motorized-bicycles for sale.

Ducati may have been inspired by the success of the Cucciolo because in 1950, the company introduced its own Cucciolo-based motorbike in association with SIATA. The first was a 48cc machine weighing in at 44kgs and a top speed of 64 km/h. Its carburetor was 15mm. Eventually, Ducati replaced the Cucciolo name with “15M” and “16TL”.

With the market embracing bigger motorcycles, Ducati joined in for a piece of the pie by debuting with their 65TS and Cruiser at the 1952 Milan show. The Cruiser was voted as the most interesting new machine. However, that was not enough to launch it to success even as a few thousand more machines were produced in a two year period. Eventually, production on the machine was halted.

In 1953, the company was divided into Ducati Meccanica and Ducati Ellectronica. In the 60s, Ducati entered the history books when they produced the fastest 250cc road bike at the time. The 70s saw the company producing large-displacement V-twin cycles. In ’73, they introduced a V-twin with the desmodromic valve design which is trademarked. Cagiva acquired Ducati in 1985 and kept the brand on its cycles. 2012 saw the company acquired by the giant Volkswagen Group, Audi.