This thread drove me (out of general curiosity) to learn more about Alta's funding history, who's been involved / backing, and how many rounds of funding they've gone through:
https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/brd-motorcycles#section-overview
The more I ponder on this, the more I'm feeling like, should H-D have
actually backed away (not sure what the legalities are here, since it seemed like a closed deal / funding round), it's better for Alta to be free of H-D - it may have also required Alta and H-D's joint approval.
Perhaps H-D's main aim in all of this was just to leverage Alta pack tech without paying patent license fees or something similar. I don't get the impression Alta is strapped for cash, and every indication on this forum is that - even with a very efficient assembly process / line - they are still not satisfying immediate demand, so big market that's only growing for them. Additionally, the Redshift price reductions were instituted before the H-D thing was (at least) announced as a thing.
I'm not even sure the H-D partnership was coming from a place of Alta actively seeking more money or strategic guidance; likely just an opportunistic thing from some Alta investor / board member that knew key H-D people and viewed this as an opportunity for Alta to tap into H-D's vast dealer network / financing, etc. (basically all those things Alta struggles with to sell bikes), and maybe also scale up road-first models, though that's sort of counter to Alta's off-road mission.
Worst case, if Alta was motivated financially by this relationship, and do need more cash, they could just go through another round of funding (I'd happily contribute!). The H-D agreement likely required a new valuation of Alta, and I'm sure they're only getting more valuable.
Totally just armchair analyzing, but I'm of the "good riddance HD" mentality. H-D probably expected the world (from an unknown investment, BTW) and were dealt some realities in response. I just hope (if all this is true) that the sketch of a scrambler-esque H-D with Alta pack was as deep as the two got in working together.
And yes, I'm also bitter about H-D ruining Buell...