Wal-Mart Turned Down $150 Million Asking Price for Videos
Video company refused Wal-Mart's counteroffer of $500,000.
April 10, 2008 -- The production company that filmed more than three decades of Wal-Mart corporate meetings and events offered the retail giant the opportunity to purchase their video library for $150 million.
Today, Wal-Mart released a letter from the attorney for Flagler Productions Inc., saying that the small video production company refused Wal-Mart's counteroffer of $500,000 and that Flagler had lowered their asking price to $145 million. [Read the letter.]
A spokesperson for Wal-Mart said they decided to release the letter after various press reports referred to Flagler's initial asking price as "several million."
Flagler owners Mary Lyn Villanueva and Gregory Pierce say they lost more than 90 percent of their business when Wal-Mart abruptly dropped them in 2006. They say they've had no choice but to sell the videos to other interested third parties.
"The prospective buyers range from a political bent to legal to national media," wrote Flagler's attorney David Sexton in the letter to Wal-Mart dated Oct. 26, 2007.
Sexton said today that the letter "is what it is" and that it shows that Flagler was initially negotiating only with Wal-Mart, but once negotiations had stalled, Flagler wanted to let Wal-Mart know that it would entertain other offers.
"The library is actually priceless," Sexton said. "So how can you quantify this? This video doesn't exist anywhere else."
Sexton said no written contract ever established that Wal-Mart has rights to the video in question.
The videos, thousands of them spanning three decades, are in the Flagler library in Lenexa, Kan. Flagler was hired on a handshake deal by Wal-Mart in the 1970s to produce and film corporate sales meetings and other company events.
After receiving a verbal commitment that Flagler would be used for meetings in the future, Wal-Mart abruptly ended its deal with Flagler in 2006 causing the company to lay off most of their employees, according to Flagler.