That answer is still basically money, though. Did they consider selling it to an employee or group of employees? Did they consider giving it to an employee or

That answer is still basically money, though. Did they consider selling it to an employee or group of employees? Did they consider giving it to an employee or group of employees? And even if none of those happened, if the new owners ran it to shit. . . was that because those new owners were in it for the money? If so, that's still money. It's certainly possible to imagine a situation where everyone (old owners, employees, customers) thought that the new owners would carry the torch well but they didn't, and I agree that's an unfortunate and largely unavoidable possibility. But I feel like it's more likely the causal chain leads to someone trying to make more money instead of doing a better job at a better thing.