A press release stated that BMW has taken a cautious resolution to return to the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) race series. Accepting BMW accomplishes particular prerequisites set out by ITR which is the organization behind DTM, the German producer will take part in the 2012 race season with the BMW M3.
Mario Theissen the BMW Motor sport Director stated that, “The planned return to the DTM is an exciting challenge for our team. Over the coming months we will be making all the necessary technical preparations that should allow us to be competitive right from the start should we join the series in 2012.”
The DTM, identified in English as the German Touring Car Masters, has presently raced solely with cars constructed by BMW’s major competitors. In 2009, racing variants of the Mercedes-Benz C-Class AMG and the Audi A4 were utilized by the seven teams who took part in the race. These teams selected 21 drivers throughout ten rounds of racing from May to October. Circuits used for the series are established primarily in Germany, with extra races in France, Spain, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.

BMW’s main single shareholder is the legendary Quandt family. The family holds 46% share of the Bavarian company. It could be debated that this bulk stake makes BMW a family business rather than a public company.

Recently BMW AG and traditional arch rival Daimler AG who are owners of Mercedes-Benz are going to buy stakes worth 7% in each other’s businesses. This was reported in Germany’s Der Spiegel newspaper. Now it is reported that the Quandt family will oppose such a deal.
Presently the two companies have agreed to buy in bulk parts that are common for both of them. BMW has the same kind of agreement with PSA Group where the Germans develop 1.6-litre petrol engines and the French use their monolithic buying power to bring down the total production costs for both entities. The deal is for 1 million engines where PSA takes 800,000 and BMW keeps 200,000.