In 1969 MOMO opened production plant in Tregnago, Province of Verona. Due to increasing United States federal government safety regulations and the wide adoption of airbags in passenger vehicles internationally, MOMO was sold in 1996 to Breed Technologies, a steering wheel airbag manufacturer. Breed Technologies was acquired by private equity firm Carlyle Group and merged with other OEM automotive businesses they owned to form Key Safety Systems in 2003. Key Safety Systems sold the MOMO brand name to an Italian private equity group in 2006, but most of the manufacturing plants and technologies previously owned by MOMO were retained by Key Safety Systems.