Editing Piaggio (section)

===Ownership===
[[File:Vespa a Todi.JPG|thumbnail|[[Vespa]] in a [[Todi]] street]]

Vespa thrived until 1992 when [[Giovanni Alberto Agnelli]], son of Antonella Bechi Piaggio and Umberto Agnelli, became CEO. Agnelli was very successful in expanding production and modernising the offer. He died unexpectedly of cancer in 1997, aged 33.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Death of Giovanni Alberto Agnelli - Obituary |work=The Independent |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/obituary-giovanni-alberto-agnelli-1289009.html?amp}}</ref> In 1999 [[Morgan, Grenfell & Co.|Morgan Grenfell Private Equity]] acquired Piaggio, but hopes for a quick sale were dashed by a failed joint venture in China.{{Clarify|date=February 2013}} In Italy, Piaggio invested 15 million euros in a new motorcycle but dropped it after building a prototype. By the end of 2002, the company had run up 577&nbsp;million Euros in debt on revenues of 945&nbsp;million Euros, and booked a loss of 129&nbsp;million Euros.

In 2003 Piaggio's debt was reduced by a 100 million Euro investment made by [[IMMSI]], a holding company of the Colaninno family. 150&nbsp;million shares were also converted by creditor banks. Reflecting on his investment, [[Roberto Colaninno]] said,

"A lot of people told me I was crazy. Piaggio wasn't dying. It just needed to be treated better."<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB114947493428871213 |title=Vespa's Builder Scoots Back To Profitability}}</ref>"

[[Roberto Colaninno|Colaninno]] became the new chairman of Piaggio, and Rocco Sabelli the managing director. Sabelli redesigned the production line according to Japanese principles so that every Piaggio scooter could be made on any assembly line. Contrary to expectations, Colaninno did not sack a single worker; a move which helped seduce the company's skeptical unions. "Everyone in a company is part of the value chain," said Colaninno. All bonuses for blue-collar workers and management were based on the same criteria: profit margins and customer satisfaction. Air conditioning was installed in the factory for the first time, increasing productivity. He also gave the company's engineers, who had been idled by the company's financial crisis, deadlines for projects. They rolled out two world firsts in 2004: a gas-electric hybrid scooter and a sophisticated tilting scooter with two wheels in front and one in back to grip the road better.

One of Piaggio's problems Colaninno couldn't fix from the inside was its scale. Even though Piaggio was the European market leader, it was dwarfed by rivals [[Honda]] and [[Yamaha Motor Company|Yamaha]]. A year after restoring Piaggio's health, Colaninno directed Piaggio's takeover of the Italian scooter and motorcycle manufacturer [[Aprilia]], and with it the Aprilia-owned [[Moto Guzzi]], a storied Italian manufacturer of motorcycles.

In 2006, Piaggio was floated on the [[Borsa Italiana|Milan Stock Exchange]], becoming a public company.