@ChibiGoku:
Wrong. Lance himself confirmed they had One Piece at one point, but lost it due to circumstances. If you need proof, I'll go looking through the topic again, but I don't really want to go looking through 100s of posts….
Oho, Lance said that? He's the ANN representative I was talking about earlier; he wouldn't (or couldn't) disclose any information about the Kadokawa license by running the risk of damaging FUNimation's image. But, yes, if you could find proof that would be most welcome because this is quite a common subject of discussion.
@Yashouzoid:
I know Saiyaman sometimes is off…
I think that's an understatement. :/
@Yashouzoid:
This has been confirmed several times, by Lance Heiskell, Mike McFarland, Kyle Hebert, in fact, the whole reason people started talking about FUNi having One Piece is because Gen Fukunaga made an off-hand comment about them bringing One Piece to America (way back in 2003).
Lance hasn't been talking very much recently about prospective purchases, which is understandable given the sort of hot-water FUNimation got itself into with regard to OP; I mean, it seems like whenever the company does something that's reported in the news that isn't related to a C&D (cry my a river fansubbers), they have to deny OP as included in their options.
Granted, there's been testimony from a lot of VA's that they thought FUNimation had the One Piece dub, beyond merely McFarland and Herbert; Laura Bailey and Christopher Sabat seemed to believe FUNimation had the license as well. HOWEVER, please keep in mind that FUNimation has VA's 'practice' for shows that the company has not necessarily licensed, but is leaning toward or in efforts to negotiate for an aquisition; this custom is a signature of FUNimation and was most famously publicised in the Fruits Basket DVDs.
Gen's comment was pretty ambiguous, but I would agree it's obvious he thought FUNimation would pull off OP.
So, it's possible that the VA's were all prepping for the OP license and everyone was hinting that FUNimation would get it; but, as I said earlier, negotiations must have fallen through at one point, as opposed to an actual retraction of the license (which shouldn't be possible if the contracts have been formalized).
To clarify, I doubt FUNimation has any intent toward OP now, since we know the company took a huge hit with DC and OP is basically the same kind of "limited appeal" show, especially given the structural damage delt to the franchise by 4Kids.