Harley Davidson/MV Agusta

The contemporary tale of Harley Davidson/MV Agusta proves the lessons of the past have yet to be learned, the entire scenario being a poor repeat of H-D's previous of Aermacchi in 1961. At that time, H-D sought an entry into small-capacity motorcycling, as they hadn't developed any lightweight bikes since introducing the Hummer (below), whose design was based wholly on the DKW RT125, blueprints and tooling of which were acquired as war trophies/reparations immediately following WW2.
Thus, H-D had a lot of catching up to do, having done no development in the fastest-growing segment of motorcycling in the late 1940s through early 70s. Having done the calculations, I'm certain management concluded it would be more cost-effective to purchase a small company with a successful product line of lightweights, than begin a years-long process of developing a new H-D line of small machines.