Big news!! Textron buys cat!!!!

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kip

Well-known member
It looks to be official that Textron Financial has purchased Arctic Cat and their debt. Should be exciting as Textron has excellent resources and as some of you may know they own Bad Boy Motorsports. This is a multi billion dollar company and Cat owners should be excited:) Hopefully this change will be good for MN and all involved with Arctic Cat! Let the predictions and assumptions begin! LOL!
 
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shelby369

New member
Been a cat man my whole life, time will tell......I do like the other businesses Textron owns and having access to those engineers can only help.....
 
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slimcake

Well-known member
I hope they keep everything in the states... Guys on HCS don't have much good to say about Textron and what they have done to other companies....
 
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ridindirty800

Active member
Well textron ruined the golf equipment side if things when they took over E Z GO, Jacoboson and Cushmen. Compared to the others in the Market they are garbage and were once great. When Jacobson was made in Wi before selling out they were great and service was hands down the best around. Now we go no where near them, service sucks and getting parts is even worse. NOW I am sure it will be different with cat, at least hopefully for all you cat owners!
 
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Attak man

New member
yamadooed said:
Seems like a interesting buy as Textron owned Polaris back in the early days...
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1968 to 1981 Textron owned polaris...until the company bought them out...polaris had some amazing models come out in that time frame...the introduction of triples..the starfire racers of the early 70s, the rxl with ifs in the late 70s, the txl, and centurion.....it will be interesting that's for sure...textron loved performance, and pushed the envelope with polaris.
 
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brad460

Member
$247M sounds cheap for a whole snowmobile manufacturer- Makes you realize just how small Arctic Cat really is..
 
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whitedust

Well-known member
Attak man said:
Well....that shoots the Yamaha is buying cat rumor down...lol
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AC as a complete company does not have much for Yamaha that they don't already have. Textron had to buy into any OEM agreements AC has on the books BUT could have a different view in the future. Any Yamaha rep I talked to always said 5 years and over but the Viper & Sidewinder releases seemed to tell a different story. Yamaha 2018 release will tell us a lot if they are just an engine OEM or have their own new products. My view is I have no freaking idea??!! LOL....:) Both Yamaha and AC will have public statements soon that we all can interpret in our own way.lol
 
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G

Guest
There has never been a shortage of good ideas at Arctic Cat. But there has always been a shortage of money to get things done. Perhaps this will help. Or else they might liquidate everything. Time will tell. I suspect we won't have to wait very long to see what direction they take.
 
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Cirrus_Driver

Guest
Yes, I thought the same, they could "carve it up, and sell off the pieces/capacity" to Polaris or BRP.
Why would Textron want it when they had it before?
 
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whitedust

Well-known member
This would solve the problem for Yamaha only wanting AC sled tech and would never spend the bucks for the rest. I always thought Yamaha was waiting to pick the AC bones. We will know soon.
 
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kip

Well-known member
Textron has recently gotten back into the Motorsports Biz with Bad Boy Motorsports which is built in the U.S. This move makes perfect sense for Textron.
 
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beerchug

New member
Does anyone know anyone who has or would purchase anything from bad boy? I would not. I take them as a cheap knock off company. I can only hope they continue to let arctic cat do their thing and not try to change them over to something along the lines of bad boy equipment.
 
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JimAndros

Active member
Textron is also a wholesale (floorplan) finance company. As a matter of fact, they did all dealer financing for Cat dealers until about late 2009 (maybe late 2010 can't remember exactly) when due to the recession/banking crisis they bailed out of all floorplan financing except for products that they produced (Cushman/WX Go..... ect). At that point, Cat worked out an agreement with GE for floorplanning. All dealers with good credit were accepted by GE. We must assume that all dealer financing will be rolled back to Textron. Oh boy did we have a real witch (with a "B") of a floor plan checker back then. She must have had to sneak up on a mirror to shave in the morning!

So, bottom line is a huge amount of ancillary income from Cat dealer's inventory!
 
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ridindirty800

Active member
This a direct quote from my boss this morning at work, a non snowmobiler but in the golf industry for 35 years. Walks in the door looks at me and say " is your sled and arctic cat? I say "no" he replies never buy on from them, textron just bought them and they have ruined everything they touched in the golf business making them cheap and service/parts bad" I can only speak of the products that were once great and have been downgraded such as cushmen, E Z go and Jacobson. I know textron has some other great lines so it could be a great thing, hopefully they dont cut and gut like many companies do after being bought out and make it about the bottom dollar. Time will tell
 
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Skylar

Super Moderator
Staff member
JimAndros said:
Textron is also a wholesale (floorplan) finance company. As a matter of fact, they did all dealer financing for Cat dealers until about late 2009 (maybe late 2010 can't remember exactly) when due to the recession/banking crisis they bailed out of all floorplan financing except for products that they produced (Cushman/WX Go..... ect). At that point, Cat worked out an agreement with GE for floorplanning. All dealers with good credit were accepted by GE. We must assume that all dealer financing will be rolled back to Textron. Oh boy did we have a real witch (with a "B") of a floor plan checker back then. She must have had to sneak up on a mirror to shave in the morning!

So, bottom line is a huge amount of ancillary income from Cat dealer's inventory!
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My 16M is financed through cat, the finance company is called Sheffied Financial.

As far as if Textron will ruin cat, hope not, but I'm not brand loyal so it really doesn't matter to me.
 
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