They might as well sell MegaMan back to Keiji Inafune so he can have all the rights to his own character again, and finally make the fans even happier.
Considering Inafune is doing a Kickstarter for Mighty No 9, I doubt he has the money to buy Mega Man from Capcom. Capcom would literally have to give Inafune the rights for Mega Man, either temporarily or permanently but with no strings attached. Otherwise, I doubt Inafune would go back on Mega Man if he lacks the creative control.
http://gaminrealm.com/2013/09/10/capcom-152-mil-bank/
Capcom doing so poorly isn't just a result of "abandoning" Mega Man, though that is one of the contributing factors. I like to think of this situation much like a lifestyle disease, in that it was something that developed over time. Stuff like:
- too much outsourcing (DmC, Lost Planet 3, Strider)
- losing touch with what consumers want
- getting the wrong idea about globalizing (read: trying to appeal to the CoD userbase)
- shelving IPs that weren't immediate breakout successes, and whoring out the ones that were (Mega Man, Street Fighter, RE, Monster Hunter)
- cutting corners, shafting the consumer (MvC3 vs UMvC3 release date)
- extremely bad DLC policies (SFxT), Note: not all DLC is bad, specifically post-development DLC, NOT "disc-locked content"
I get that Capcom is a for-profit organization, and people need those paychecks to sustain a living. But when their following first priority is to nickel and dime their consumers rather than producing creative (and functioning) games, it's kind of obvious where those misdirected goals will lead them. It's also not really surprising why many of their prominent artists like Shinji Mikami, Hideki Kamiya, and Inafune broke off from Capcom so that they can do their own thing.
Also, it doesn't help that the Japanese game industry works on lifelong employments while giving little recognition for success. This makes for a creatively bankrupt company like Capcom pretty much actively dissuading people from working hard, because doing so is at their own expense.