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Interesting thought. At the same time Viacom was negotiating to acquire Ninja Turtles, Disney was in talks to buy Marvel. The sales were completed Oct. 2009 for Ninja Turtles, Aug. 2009 for Marvel.
Disney never made an offer for Ninja Turtles. In retrospect it would have been smart, both from how they acquire everything, but also would've actually brought the turtles in-line with Daredevil, who's cheekily supposed to be a part of their origin.
I don't know if Warner Bros. ever made an offer. I did hear from Mirage people that Viacom made the only SERIOUS offer.
By the way, if you're wondering why Viacom: It wasn't just random that they wanted Ninja Turtles. The original airings of the 1987 cartoon were on CBS. Many of the executives who worked at CBS, who saw the old cartoon's success, now run CBS, Nickelodeon and Paramount. To make a funny connection, that's the same reason why Viacom purchased Garfield recently. CBS had the longest relationship with Garfield and Jim Davis.
As for what would have been smart on Peter Laird's side, of course holding out another decade would have been more profitable, and that will continue to be true in the future. Haim Saban sold Power Rangers in 2018 for almost 10 times the Ninja Turtles sale. But that gets into what an owner wants to do. Similarly, George Lucas could have squeezed a few more BILLIONS out of Star Wars if he was selling it today, but hey, is that what Lucas wanted?
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