[dude]

Mal ein handfester Kommentar auf ST:

"As with any private equity fund, the fund in which WTC is held by Providence Equity will need to be returned to investors within 5-7 years. So WTC will be sold in the next few years, either to another private equity fund or a trade buyer. With a private equity fund owner there is no loyalty or altruistic motives for buying and owning a company like WTC, it is purely and simply a profit motive. Buy, crank up the cashflows then sell, hopefully for more than you bought it for. If I was looking to buy WTC next I would be concerned about its monopolistic position in the market coming to an end as Challenge-type events enter the market. A trade buyer like a sports marketing firm would probably be less concerned about short term profitability/resale and more focused on how they could use WTC events to sell more of their stuff to the gullible. I can't see a media firm being interested because Ironman is not a TV/spectating type of event, it is an event for participation. Participation requires buying gear and equipment so perhaps a more likely buyer would be a global sports marketing company with an existing place in the triathlon market or aspirations to enter it.
Either way, like many sports (but perhaps more so because of the breadth of equipment required across all three sports) triathlons will become more like commercial expos than pure sporting events. The money made out of that will continue to go back to WTC and the retailers, not pro triathletes. Volunteers, despite the best of intentions and admirable motives, will continue to be the slave labour of the triathlon world.
So perhaps nothing will change then?......"