@gunrunnerjohn posted:That's part of the problem, and IMO not exactly a reason to be optimistic. It's going to take a lot of capitol to buy it and keep it running, so I'm not nearly as optimistic as you at this point. I just hope there's some continuity of parts for folks to keep the existing stuff running.
I'd agree with this assessment as well. In the current business climate, it wouldn't be easy to obtain financing for anyone to pay millions for a toy train manufacturer. It's all in the numbers that a potential buyer would see, and future projections. I doubt the company is actually worth nearly as much as some people might imagine. Their building is already sold, much of the tooling is owned by someone else - perhaps the major asset is the "good will" value of the company, and the value of the intellectual property. But if what Superwarp said is true, that the company has been up for sale for years, that's not a good sign.
It's hard to imagine that any employees are going to be able to pull together assets sufficient to purchase the company. Also, if MW is going to bail out right away, that's not good at all. Arrangements are generally made in a purchase agreement for the former owner to stick around for several years during the transition. Lots of unanswered questions - obviously it will be interesting to see what happens next. Someone may take over the parts business, but who's going to make the thousands of replacement parts into the future?
