The Mammoth Mountain Sale

June 26, 2005

Bump Diamond
Man About Town

    If all goes according to plan, the buyer of ski area founder Dave McCoy’s share of Mammoth Mountain will be announced soon, and the deal will be done by late August.
   Last week, Rusty Gregory, McCoy and the other top execs at the Mountain were completing interviews with 30 entities, which began lining up as soon as McCoy announced his intention to sell in March.
    No wonder there was such a long line.
    “They (potential buyers) can see what Mammoth Mountain has been able to do without a whole lot of financing behind it, and they imagine what would happen if Rusty actually had some big-time money,” said one Mammoth business person.
    In May, the list of potential buyers was pared to “no fewer than five and no more than 12” candidates, Gregory said.
    If plans go as scheduled, the single finalist or group will be chosen in mid-June, but that finalist will be announced only if both sides can agree on what will be a fairly complicated deal.
    “Only about 60 percent of these kinds of deals actually close,” Gregory said.
    If things work out, though, the close would be in time for McCoy’s 90th birthday bash on August 20, which is in advance of his actual birthday on August 24.
    I'm not sure if this is the kind of birthday gift Dave had in mind, though.