well, I have read the relevant blog entry of peter laird, too and I seemed to see something in his decision that I haven't come accross here I think:
the man decided to retire from his co-creation(which had him working on it about the half of his lifetime) in regard of TWO things
ne)being tired of the material he thaught somebody else handling the stories would result in maybe more exciting work done with the tmnt...I don't see how someone can argue with that point...even though I also love his turtles, but hey the man doesn't wanna do this any more(for now at least) so we all should quit bugging him...
TWO)he knows he couldn't be sitting in the corner and NOT interfere when he sees something done with his characters that he'd find inapropriate...
so, quite in the spirit of his liberation from old bad habbits he chose to give the property away and free himself of a burdon....
I also don't like this talk of 'oh he just wanted to make a quick 60 mio dollars'...off course it isn't bad to get financial sercurity for yourself and the rest of your family guaranted for life(I bet)by one single transaction, yet there would be plenty of more cash in it when he stayed on board this merchandizing monster...think about it....
that's just jelousy speaking out of the authors of such comments in my oppinion...
so, that's been my two cents for today, I hope you enjoyed them...
peace
marcel