Troy Bayliss Back on Track with Ducati

Retired 3 time World Superbike Champion Troy Bayliss will soon be back on track with Ducati in 2011 with the announcement of an addition to the Ducati Riding Experience (DRE), the new Troy Bayliss Academy. Lucky riders will ride with and receive direct tuition from the legendary triple World Superbike Champion himself on Ducati’s new 1198SP.

Catering to every level of riding experience, the 2011 DRE courses start begin in April at major circuits across Italy such as Adria, Imola, Monza and Mugello. The safety-driven, adrenaline-filled events collaborate with the Italian Motorcycle Federation (FMI) – setting a new benchmark for fully approved instruction.

For those wanting to lay their very first tire tracks on a motorcycle, the Basic course onboard the Ducati Monster 796 provides the perfect environment to learn in complete safety under highly skilled instructors. More experienced riders who want to further improve their skills will benefit from the Intermediate course; which uses Monster 796, Hypermotard 796 and Hypermotard 1100EVO models in specially prepared exercises.

On the track, the Racing 1 course uses the brand new 848EVO to teach basic track riding-skills in an environment specifically designed for those riding on a track for the first time; or those who have limited track experience. The course is held exclusively at the Adria Circuit, a perfect place for a track-riding debut.

The Racing 2 course is intended for those who already have track-riding experience and want to improve their style, technique and speed in a controlled and safe environment. Also using the Ducati 848EVO, participants will be under the professional tuition of highly experienced and accomplished instructors.

For those riders who already have well developed track skills, are comfortable with being in a high-speed environment and now want to take their riding to the next level, the Master course uses the new Ducati 1198 SP model.

DRE participants will enjoy considerable track time on some of Italy’s top race circuits and full immersion into the world of Ducati. The incredible line-up of instructors includes champions from the National, European and World level; including Dario Marchetti, Alessandro Polita and the charismatic 500cc World Champion, Marco Lucchinelli.

2011 also sees the addition of the Troy Bayliss Academy, an exciting new course designed for highly competent track-day riders aboard the new Ducati 1198 SP. Groups will be restricted to just four lucky riders per day, each riding with and receiving direct tuition from the legendary triple World Superbike Champion himself.

DRE course fees range from €350 (~$450US) for the Basic course to €2000 (~$2,600US) for the Troy Bayliss Academy. The fee includes motorcycle, tires, instructors, fuel, lunch and a welcome kit. Course registration opens on 20 January 2011 at www.ducatiridingexperience.com.

Bayliss had been rumored as wanting to return to Superbike racing with Ducati and made public statements to that effect before dramatically performing a you turn and claiming retirement for good. There has been some speculation that Troy may have become aware of Ducati’s plans to no longer field a factory team in the World Championship before it was formally announced.

Ducati Riding Experience courses:

• Basic (Monster 796)
• Intermediate (Monster 796, Hypermotard 796, Hypermotard 1100EVO)
• Racing 1 (Superbike 848EVO)
• Racing 2 (Superbike 848EVO)
• Master (Superbike 1198 SP)
• Troy Bayliss Academy (Superbike 1198 SP)

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Google to Buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5 Billion

In a bid to strengthen its mobile business, Google announced on Monday that it would acquire Motorola Mobility Holdings, the cellphone business that was split from Motorola, for $40 a share in cash, or $12.5 billion.

The offer — by far Google’s largest ever for an acquisition — is 63 percent above the closing price of Motorola Mobility shares on Friday. Motorola manufactures phones that run on Google’s Android software.

Android has become an increasingly important platform for Google, as global smartphone adoption accelerates. The platform, launched in 2007, is now used in more than 150 million devices, with 39 manufacturers.

The acquisition would turn Google, which makes the Android mobile operating system, into a full-fledged cellphone manufacturer, in direct competition with Apple.

“This is an emphatic exclamation point that Google is a mobile company,” said Ben Schachter, an analyst with Macquarie Capital. “This is clearly a defensive deal, they were backed in a corner and they had to protect the Android platform.”

The deal answers a big question about Google’s next strategic step in wireless. Google has been battling with Apple and Microsoft over patents.

Last month, Apple and Microsoft led a consortium of technology companies in a $4.5 billion purchase of roughly 6,000 patents from Nortel Networks, the Canadian telecommunications maker that filed for bankruptcy in 2009. Google, which lost out in the bidding, criticized the deal as an anticompetitive strategy. Several weeks later, Google acquired more than 1,000 patents from I.B.M.

Motorola holds more than 17,000 patents.

While the acquisition will move Google directly into the telecommunications hardware business, Larry Page, Google’s chief executive, said in a blog post that “this acquisition will not change our commitment to run Android as an open platform. Motorola will remain a licensee of Android and Android will remain open. We will run Motorola as a separate business.”

Still, the deal is certain to attract significant antitrust scrutiny. The Federal Trade Commission is already investigating Google’s dominance in several areas of its business. The company has agreed to pay a $2.5 billion reverse termination fee, if it walks away, and Motorola will pay a $375 million break-up fee if it takes another offer, according to a person close to the transaction, who was not authorized to speak.

In a conference call on Monday morning, Google said it was confident that it will be able to win regulatory approval, since the deal will ultimately improve competition in the smart phone market.

“We think this is a competitive transaction,” David Drummond, the company’s chief legal officer said. “This is not a horizontal transaction, Google has not materially been in the handset business.”

The acquisition of a major handset maker may still pose a significant challenge to the search giant, which has not specialized in manufacturing or marketing of smartphones. Last year, it closed down the online store for its first Google-branded phone, the Nexus One, citing the store’s underwhelming performance. A Motorola tie-up may also irk other phone manufacturers, like Samsung and HTC, which will now be competing directly with Google.

“Can they convince their competitors that Motorola will truly operate as a standalone business?” Mr. Schachter said.

And while Google has made dozens of acquisitions in recent years, most of them have been for less than $1 billion — despite a current war chest of some $40 billion in cash. On the company’s official blog, Mr. Page said Google was purchasing the handset maker to bolster its Android mobile operating system and increase the number of patents it owned.

Android accounted for 43.4 percent of smartphone sales in the second quarter, according to Gartner Research, a major increase from the year ago period, when it made up about 17 percent of sales.

“Our acquisition of Motorola will increase competition by strengthening Google’s patent portfolio, which will enable us to better protect Android from anticompetitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies,” Mr. Page said.

Carl C. Icahn, Motorola Mobility’s second-largest shareholder, had urged the company last month to “explore alternatives regarding its patent portfolio to enhance shareholder value.” Mr. Icahn owns 9.03 percent of Motorola Mobility.

On Monday, he applauded the transaction, calling it “a great outcome for all shareholders of Motorola Mobility, especially in light of today’s markets.”

Lazard and the law firm of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton advised Google. Frank Quattrone’s investment bank, Qatalyst Partners, Centerview Partners and the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz advised Motorola Mobility.

The acquisition has been approved by both boards.

Michael J. de la Merced contributed reporting.

This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: August 15, 2011

Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article referred incorrectly to Google's acquisition of patents from I.B.M. The purchase price was not disclosed.
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Challenging weekend for the Ducati Team at Aragón

On one hand, the choice to use a seventh engine for Valentino Rossi enables his team to have two identical motorcycles available to work on during the last races of the season, but on the other hand, he was obliged to start from pit lane today, ten seconds after the race start. That didn’t prevent the Italian from stubbornly climbing to ninth place, even if a worn rear tyre prompted him to subsequently lose a position to Cal Crutchlow.

Nicky Hayden started very well from the third row and finished in seventh place after a strong battle with Hector Barbera that lasted until the final corner.

Nicky Hayden (Ducati Team) 7th
“I had a good start and was decent at the very beginning. We knew tyre wear was going to be an issue, and we had a drop in performance after the first couple of laps. It lost grip, and I also wasn’t able to load the bike well for turning. I was okay in parts of the track, but compared to the fast guys, I was losing time in the last corner. I hoped to hang onto the second group for a while, but it just wasn’t possible. I’d like to have fought with Bautista on the last lap because he was on our pace, but Barbera and I were going back and forth, which hurt both of us and let him escape. It’s unfortunate, because coming here we hoped that we could put up a better fight. Still, this is the first race I’ve finished normally with the GP11.1, since at Indy I reentered just to get points. Hopefully that will help us to get some data and be better off in the future.”

Valentino Rossi (Ducati Team) 10th
“It was definitely a difficult race, even if objectively speaking, we could have done a little better than we did. We used the setup from yesterday morning, with which I had done some good laps with a very used tyre. Unfortunately, in the race the rear tyre was sliding much more than it did in practice. It was almost used up just when I was catching Nicky and his group. That said, we’re still not where we should be. We’re working on several fronts, with short-term solutions that haven’t been conclusive, and others that are longer-term and that I still hope can bring more substantial improvements. We’ll see what they think at the factory. For now, we’re still pretty far, and given that time is our biggest enemy, we’ll continue also working on development during the races.”

Vittoriano Guareschi (Team Manager)
“This race was very difficult for us, but it was also important because we began a project that, while it caused a penalty for Valentino, is also one of the first steps in the direction of the Desmosedici’s development. We know that it’s not easy for a rider to knowingly sacrifice any chance of having a better performance, and this gives us enormous motivation to try to speed up our work as much as possible. Nicky and his team are also trying extremely hard to gather as much information as possible on his GP11.1 which, despite not having the updated front chassis part like Valentino’s, is still a new bike with a lot of margin for improvement with regards to its setup.”

Press release courtesy of Ducati Team
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Double podium for Repsol Honda Team’s 100th win

Not only did Stoner celebrate recording the fastest pole position (1'48.451) and fastest race lap (1'49.046) at the MotorLand circuit, but he also took the 100th victory for the Respol Honda Team since the partnership was formed in 1995 where fellow Australian Mick Doohan won the very first race for the factory HRC team in Eastern Creek.

Dani Pedrosa completed a 1-2 podium finish for the team with a comfortable margin over Jorge Lorenzo. Unfortunately, team mate Andrea Dovizioso fell on the first lap and was unable to continue.

Championship leader Stoner now enjoys a 44 point margin over Lorenzo in second place, with Dovizioso in third position and Pedrosa close behind in fourth.

The Championship now heads east to Japan for round fifteen in Motegi on October 2nd where alongside it's contracted riders, HRC will enter Shinichi Ito as a wild card entry in a HRC Team while Kousuke Akiyoshi will ride alongside Toni Elias for LCR as a show of support for the affected East Japan area.

Casey Stoner:
"Before the race everyone was a little cautious with the wind picking up after the morning warm up and conditions being a lot different to those we have seen all weekend. This was on our minds, also warming the hard tyres to make sure everything was good for the beginning of the race. Our start was pretty average, I pulled to the left a little on the start and managed to avoid hitting Dani, but Ben came around the outside and I ended up third or fourth going into turn one but from there we were able to settle down and feel comfortable with the bike. I wanted to get to the front as soon as possible as the bike has been working perfect all weekend and it was our race to lose, so I tried to get in front and pull a gap. I passed Dani as soon as I could and tried to pull that gap, Dani kept with me for the first few laps, but slowly I was able to put in a gap and manage the race. I think everyone was struggling with tyres to some degree, but the bike was fantastic and I don't mind when the bike slides around a little! A big, big thank you to the whole team and to take this hundredth win for Repsol Honda is something special."

Dani Pedrosa:
"We already saw in practice that Casey was very fast here and it was also like this in the race. I was losing some tenths in the first sector and I was unable to reduce the gap in the other parts of the lap. The second half of the race I was sliding the whole time and I had some fun, but it was a shame not to be closer to Casey, I had many problems with the rear tyre for the whole race. My priority was to control the gap to Spies and Jorge in the final laps and get another podium. We've been second in the last three races, which is not so bad, but we want to keep improving in the coming races."

Andrea Dovizioso:
“I made a small but fast slide at the first right turn, all the weight went on the front, I wasn't able to control the bike and I immediately lost it as the front tyre was still not at temperature. It’s so disappointing to see your race over on turn two of the first lap after all the hard work done during the weekend. It’s a pity because we had the pace to fight for the podium and the team did a good job. Leaving Aragón without scoring any points is also so bad for the Championship. We are still third, with a fifteen point advantage over Dani, but now we need to return on the podium and have good results. Last year we had a strong end of the season, especially in Japan and Malaysia, so I look forward to the next GPs.”

Repsol Honda press release.
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