Harley to Be Taken Over?

This could be very bad for Milwaukee and Wisconsin if it’s true. 

A rumor that Harley-Davidson Inc. is the target of a takeover bid - by a firm famous for buying and sometimes dismantling companies - drove the motorcycle maker’s shares to a three-month high Tuesday.

The stock closed at $28.35, up 7% in trading that was nearly six times higher than the normal volume.

Investors responded to speculation that Harley was a takeover target by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., a private equity firm whose $25 billion purchase of RJR Nabisco in 1989 inspired a book and the movie “Barbarians at the Gate.”

New York-based KKR would not comment on the Harley rumor that began with stock traders in Frankfurt, Germany.

Milwaukee-based Harley also declined to comment, but the rumor fueled a frenzy of media and analyst speculation.