34 Lamborghini (1)

Simon and Sarah spent a whole week enjoying the climate of Italy and the hospitality of the Italian people. Both enjoyed themselves to the fullest while living in the most expensive hotel suit Bologna had to offer in 1971. The hotel was furnished in a rather old-fashioned Italian style, but the two young New Yorkers enjoyed a change of style in their living quarters.

Sarah was visibly blessed after enjoying Italian cuisine a whole week and looked nourished after staying together with Simon every night. Wearing a fresh summer dress her long hairs danced with the wind of Italy.

Nonetheless, all the joy and happiness didn't let her get confused. She knew Simon must have something to do in Italy. He wouldn't just waste weeks in Europe doing nothing at all.

"Dear, I really enjoyed our time together this past week. But when will you tell me about your goal in Europe? I think having a whole week for us should be enough for now. How about telling me what you are truly here for?" Sarah asked playfully.

Simon wasn't all too surprised that his girlfriend could guess what's on his mind. After spending such a long time together and knowing each other for over a year they slowly built up a healthy connection and understanding of each other. He would have been concerned if she truly believed they were only in Europe to spend some time on vacation.

His true goal in Europe this time was very ambitious. He wanted to find a way to enter the automotive industry. One of the most influential industries of the next few decades.

But just like he did with his entry into the Sports Entertainment industry, he wanted to find a small company to join at first and develop some achievements of its own. 

"Don't worry Sarah, I was already planning to tell you about our next destination. Have you heard about the Lamborghini automotive company that is headquartered right here in Bologna?"

 When he didn't receive an answer for a few seconds he looked over to his girlfriend and saw her helpless and slightly angry expression.

It dawned upon him, of course a young New Yorker girl would know nothing about a company in Europe that was mostly known for their tractors right now.

Helplessly, he sat next to Sarah and hugged her slowly, while starting to explain some information about his goal:

"The Lamborghini Automobile company began life as the brainchild of Italian founder Ferruccio Lamborghini. Born in 1916, Ferruccio served as a mechanic in the Italian Royal Air Force during the Second World War before going into business building tractors based on surplus World War II military hardware.

By the mid-1950s, Lamborghini's tractor company was growing at a rapid rate and by the time he expanded into constructing boilers and air-conditioning systems in 1960, Lamborghini had become one of Italy's great industrialists.

With increased success brought great wealth, which led Ferruccio to purchase a fleet of sports cars – one of them a Ferrari 250GT. It was this acquisition that spawned the idea for Ferruccio Lamborghini to set up his own car company; in his opinion finding that the Ferrari was too noisy and rough for proper road cars, likening them to repurposed track cars."

Sarah was listening attentively and slowly understood that her boyfriend was ambitious this time. He not only wanted to join the automotive industry but start with the most luxurious cars possible. Accompanying such a young and ambitious lover around the world and being close to such an acquisition really excited her a lot.

Simon needed to spend a few hours to pacify her newfound desire. When resting on the coach and watching his sleeping beauty he calmy thought about some information he couldn't disclose to Sarah yet, because they simply didn't happen yet.

With the 1971-1973 oil crisis taking a sledgehammer to sales of high-performance cars, Lamborghini hit hard times and Ferruccio sold 51 per cent of his company to long-time friend and Swiss businessman Georges-Henri Rossetti for $600,000. The tractor company was sold to the German SAME group in 1972.

A year later Ferruccio Lamborghini sold his remaining 49 % stake in Lamborghini Automobile to Rene Leimer, a friend of Georges-Henri Rossetti. Having severed all connections with the cars and tractors that bore his name, Lamborghini retired to an estate in the province of Perugia in central Italy, where he would remain until his death in 1993.

This means that Ferrucio Lamborghini won't insist on keeping his company in the possession of his own family. Of course, the hardest time of the coming crisis has not yet happened, and Simon won't be able to buy Lamborghini Automotive at the ridiculous low price of 1.3 million US Dollars, but it certainly won't be that much higher, as Lamborghini truly didn't achieve amazing results with his luxury cars in the last few years, with even lower expectations this year.

The secretary his family assigned to him, Stanley Barnes, a graduate of Wharton Business School, already made an appointment for him with the current head of Lamborghini, Ferrucio Lamborghini. The appointment will happen in a few days, on February 13th, 1971. Just one day before Valentine's Day. Maybe he could gift his girlfriend a car built by his own company as a Valentine's gift.

Even though this was highly unlikely, as he might be able to convince Ferrucio Lamborghini to sell his company in one day, but certainly won't be able to complete all the procedures in one day.

The next few days Simon kept spending a lovely vacation with Sarah while listening to the development of his two companies remotely. Caroline was using bank loans and additional investment to further increase the production volume and marketing of Red Bull. She was already starting to contact some Wall Street Banks for the financing that was set for July 1971. Many people already showed a lot of interest into this new founded company with the potential to become a unicorn like Coca-Cola. Of course, there were tries to imitate the energy drink of Red Bull, but many were afraid to touch the patent barrier of Red Bull too early, mostly because of the Smith family.

Furthermore, it was crystal clear that a beverage that has influence on the heart rate won't be developed without intensive investments and long trial periods. Not many companies wanted to risk such a large investment and lose to Red Bull afterwards, because they were the leader and would even further expand their lead during this time.

The most important point that closed the market for competitors now was the synergy built with Atari. If there was no counterpart to Atari which they could use to enter the gaming market, developing and producing an energy drink that was mostly marketed for gamers right now would only bring certain loses to the company.