"Who in the Sam Hill is MW think he is going to sell to."
Key questions, obviously. I have no real idea. What I think I know is that Mike Wolf is a very proud and arrogant guy, like many self-made men. He created a company that once had over a hundred employees and probably still does tens of millions of dollars a year in business, even in a slowly dying industry. He has been an industry leader. He's employed people who are universally liked and respected, who have kept him from self-destructing at times. I'm referring to Andy Edleman and Rich Foster, the former of whom I've met and been impressed by. Like anyone approaching his seventh decade, who has done all he will ever do in their profession, he's thinking of spending more time in his chosen home, Florida, perhaps with his family, but definitely not making model trains. That's not entirely supposition on my part, but certainly not based upon first hand knowledge.
I'm sure he values the company somewhere in the 50-100 million dollar range, at least (my guess). I doubt there is anyone foolish enough to pay much more than 10-20% of that, so there's a dilemma. The tooling is not in his physical possession and is designed for PS3. I'm guessing adapting it to something less arcane and unreliable, like DCC, LionChief or TMCC/Legacy isn't going to be cheap. So Lionel's interest will be in getting a bargain, and no one else is going to be interested at all. I would be surprised if he sold the company at fire sale prices to Lionel (or anyone else, for that matter). Certainly not Bachmann or Atlas, etc. They will have minimal to no interest in the whole company at those prices is my guess. The employees are not going to be able to come up with the money in all likelihood so that route may not be open.
All this is total and perhaps way off base speculation on my part, but I suspect there's a kernel of truth in it because there is not even the smallest rumor that a sale or transition is on the way after some time of public knowledge that he wanted out. He's got a problem. Despite the fact that a few of his fans I've known have been amongst the most offensive and ignorant idiots
, I hope he can find some buyer or other way out that preserves the company, if only for the employees, who are without any blame for the unpleasant things he's done, and for the hobbyists who have hitched their pleasure to his bandwagon, with no blame for causing disharmony in the hobby. Time will tell.
