After a financial meltdown, Pierer Mobility AG (KTM) was acquired by Bajaj AG, which now owns 74.9% of the company. After this, Bajaj AG changed Pierer Mobility AG's name to Bajaj Mobility AG and announced a corporate restructuring plan to try and get the company back in the black—the first part of that plan is underway, as 500 employees were just laid off.
Bajaj AG stuck to its original plan, which was to keep the majority of employees who work in production and focus on cutting out unnecessary management positions. Of the approximately 500 people laid off, they were primarily in salaried positions and middle management.
“This reduction in staff is a difficult but necessary decision to lower our costs, streamline structures, and thus ensure the long-term stability of the company,” said CEO Gottfried Neumeister. “We are reducing complexity in all areas – for example, in our model range, in IT, and also in the organization of our departments, particularly by eliminating a management level.
Whether more layoffs are in Bajaj Mobility AG's near future is unclear, but what is clear is that the company wants to streamline all processes and departments. In this case, streamlining production doesn't just mean shedding unnecessary processes, but stopping production completely in some cases.
In 2025, KTM got out of the bicycle business and sold FELT Bicycles, but this was just the start of divesting in its brands. More recently, the Austrian manufacturer has terminated its distribution of CFMoto, sold MV Agusta shortly after acquiring it, and sold its only four-wheeled offering, the X-Bow division. If you know Bajaj Mobility AG's catalogue, you can probably guess why the brand has shed so many of its offerings.
According to Bajaj Mobility, "With a smaller core team and significantly lower structural costs, KTM AG is thus pursuing its goal of simplification and focus in order to once again become one of the world's leading motorcycle manufacturers... "All measures are being taken with a view to consistently focusing on the Motorcycles segment with its three core brands: KTM, GASGAS, and Husqvarna."
As a KTM fan, it's difficult to say goodbye to the X-Bow, but hopefully this restructuring will allow all three of the company's core brands to continue competing at the highest level. Whether or not Bajaj Mobility will continue to fund a KTM effort in MotoGP, however, remains to be seen.
