A reported $59 million offer for photo archive businesses and sports memorabilia assets once controlled by an Arkansas man is no longer a viable option.
Arkansas Business reported Tuesday that the offer, supposedly made by an Atlanta area group called Red Alert Media Matrix, no longer has the financing needed to complete the deal.
A filing in Pulaski County Circuit court indicated a court appointed receiver who had been looking into the acquisition offer for John Rogers’ businesses and holdings, won’t be spending any more time on it because of the financing issue.
In January, Red Alert signed a letter of intent to purchase Sports Cards Plus Inc., which did business as Rogers Photo Archive; Planet Giant LLC and Digital Stock Planet LLC and Photo Archive Partners LLC, which did business as John Rogers Partners LLC.
Rogers has other assets, including the Conlon Collection and the George Brace Collection, all of which now have ownership questions after a series of civil lawsuits. Those are excluded from any potential sale until a judge can rule on the ownership status.
Late last month, the receiver, Michael McAfee, together with First Arkansas Bank and Trust, which has filed suit against Rogers over unpaid loans, asked for a temporary restraining order against Doug Allen of Legendary Auctions over some of the Conlon photos. They say 67 glass plate negatives, the “crown jewels” of the seven-figure collection of baseball photos taken by Conlon in the first part of the 20th century, are controlled by Allen, who teamed with Rogers to purchase them from The Sporting News several years ago.
The TRO request was made to prevent the sale of those images and ask that they be handed over to McAfee while Rogers’ assets are sorted out.
In a letter responding to the filing, Allen told the court the Conlon photos are in a shared partnership arrangements that include a family member and the “Allen Family Trust” and that while he manages the trust, he doesn’t own any part of the collection.
Allen is awaiting sentencing on fraud charges that stem from his tenure with Mastro Auctions.
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