Credit – Wrestling Observer
As we reported a few days ago, the Carter family is actively negotiating with potential buyers for TNA.
Dave Meltzer first broke the news on his radio show when he reported that the Carter’s are “100%” trying to sell TNA “to the highest bidder”. Meltzer had said:
“There’s a lot of moves being done behind the scenes. There are, no matter what anyone is gonna say right now, big things behind the scenes as far as the future ownership of the company and at that point God only knows where it goes…. There’s people looking at getting it and I think the Carters are looking to get out. They’ve lost enough money and all that and as far as what that means, who knows? But they’ve been looking to get out for awhile, now everyone is going to scream at me and all that, but that’s a 100%, but that’s the stuff they don’t want you to know…. They’ve been looking to get out when they stopped, you know, when it became incumbent, when they didn’t want to fund them anymore….”
In the newest issue of The Wrestling Observer, Meltzer elaborated and gave more info on who the potential buyer(s) may be. He said:
“What I can say at this point is that there is a potential buyer that has been looking at the company. Reps for the potential new ownership group have been at the offices. Talk of a potential sale has been going on for months, but has reached a serious enough point where things are at a significant stage. It is not entirely clear who will end up in power and run the company if and when the deal being negotiated goes through, and what percentage of the company, or if the entire company, is what is being negotiated. One source with significant knowledge of what is going down said the new group is unlikely to get involved without owning a controlling interest. “
Meltzer also said that reports that Viacom, Eric Bischoff, Jeff Jarrett, or the WWE purchasing TNA is way if. He stated:
“Also, regarding speculation in various media of names involved, all of the speculation is way off, that much I know. It doesn’t appear Viacom has any interest in buying the company (even though TNA gets far better ratings than Bellator, it’s not as valuable because it can’t get the corporate sponsors or ad revenue) and the parties involved come from outside the pro wrestling industry. The people who have at least been negotiating the most seriously are not from Viacom. The people involved have been successful in a number of other businesses. Just my gut says they are buying it more as a television property with the idea that future rights fees as those number escalate for sports will make it valuable.”
In regards to Hulk Hogan’s involvement, the report states that the possible buyer doesn’t see Hogan’s involvement with TNA as a priority. If the possible new owner felt like Hogan was essential to the business, it’s said that hogan would have been locked up by now.
