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Cedar Fair, L.P. Completes Acquisition of the Paramount Parks

30.06.2006 22:22:00

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SANDUSKY, Ohio, June 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Cedar Fair, L.P. , today announced that it has completed its acquisition of the Paramount Parks from CBS Corporation , in a cash transaction valued at approximately $1.24 billion. Cedar Fair will assume the complete operations and management of the parks immediately.

"The completion of this acquisition is great news," said Dick Kinzel, Cedar Fair's chairman, president and chief executive officer. "The five Paramount properties are well-run, top-tier parks in good locations with the potential to do even better. The acquisition brings us access to new markets with attractive demographics, such as northern California, the Carolinas, Virginia / District of Columbia and Toronto. We now have a well-balanced portfolio of operations with four parks producing annual attendance over three million visitors each (Cedar Point, Kings Island, Knott's Berry Farm and Canada's Wonderland) and, on a proforma basis, no single park contributes more than 22% of revenues based on 2005 results. Our combined operations now include 12 amusement parks, five outdoor water parks, one indoor water park and six hotels, and will entertain approximately 25 million guests annually."

The five Paramount Parks consist of Canada's Wonderland near Toronto, Canada; Kings Island near Cincinnati, Ohio; Kings Dominion near Richmond, Virginia; Carowinds near Charlotte, North Carolina; and Great America located in Santa Clara, California.

Kinzel added, "Cedar Fair's employees as well as many employees from the Paramount Parks have a long history and strong reputation within the industry. They have demonstrated their ability to drive solid returns on investments and are ready and anxious to begin integrating these five great family-oriented parks with our current properties."

Kinzel concluded by noting that the Partnership will issue an additional press release in the near future to provide updated 2006 earnings guidance, which will reflect the revenues and cash flow of the Paramount Parks from the date of the acquisition, and information on the Partnership's long term financing.

Cedar Fair's other amusement parks are Cedar Point, located on Lake Erie between Cleveland and Toledo; Knott's Berry Farm near Los Angeles in Buena Park, California; Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom near Allentown, Pennsylvania; Valleyfair near Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota; Worlds of Fun, located in Kansas City, Missouri; Geauga Lake & Wildwater Kingdom near Cleveland, Ohio; and Michigan's Adventure near Muskegon, Michigan. The Partnership's water parks are located near San Diego and in Palm Springs, California, and adjacent to Cedar Point, Knott's Berry Farm and Worlds of Fun. Cedar Fair also owns and operates the Castaway Bay Indoor Waterpark Resort in Sandusky, Ohio. Cedar Fair's flagship park, Cedar Point, has been voted the "Best Amusement Park in the World" for eight consecutive years in a prestigious annual poll conducted by Amusement Today newspaper.

Some of the statements contained in this news release constitute forward- looking statements. These statements may involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in such statements. Although the Partnership believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to have been correct. Important factors, including general economic conditions, competition for consumer leisure time and spending, adverse weather conditions, unanticipated construction delays and other factors could affect attendance at our parks and cause actual results to differ materially from the Partnership's expectations. In addition, risks and uncertainties concerning the acquisition include, but are not limited to the ability of the Partnership to combine the operations and take advantage of growth, savings and synergy opportunities.

This press release and prior press releases are available online at http://www.cedarfair.com/

Quelle: Finanzen.net / Aktiencheck.de AG

http://finanzen.net/news/news_detail.asp?NewsNr=410962

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Spoke to a friend who is working at what is left of Paramount Corporate out of Carowinds. This person said they have been told that representatives from Cedar Fair will be going to each Paramount Park over the next couple of months to give a 'Town Hall' type meeting to all full-time employees. Most will learn their fate at these meetings. My source at Paramounts feels many jobs will be eliminated, or relocated. The winds of change are upon them...

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You will note that on that map it does NOT refer to any of the former Paramount Parks as Paramount's Name of Park. Instead, the parks are each referred to only by the park's name, without Paramount anything.

I suspect this is our first real clue that the Paramount's name IS going to be history.

Oddly, the map calls it King's Island and King's Dominion! Apostrophes????

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The image on the main page has Kings Island correct without an apostrophe. However, on the page talking about the actual acquisition, it still has an apostrophe. It will be interesting to see how soon changes start appearing in various places now that the parks are officially owned by Cedar Fair.

I can`t wait to see what the new logo for Kings Island will look like. Certainly it won`t resemble the current PKI logo with the Paramount banner. But that is something we will have to wait until the offseason before we get a glimpse at that I believe.

In regards to the PKICentral question. In case you haven`t noticed, if you type in KICentral.com, you are automatically redirected to PKICentral.com. I don`t know when we plan on switching over to just KI, but it will likely be after the park itself begins calling itself just KI again.

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In regards to the PKICentral question. In case you haven`t noticed, if you type in KICentral.com, you are automatically redirected to PKICentral.com. I don`t know when we plan on switching over to just KI, but it will likely be after the park itself begins calling itself just KI again.

It's going to take a long time to convert everything over to KICentral, that's IF we do that... Once again, it doesn't hurt anything to be PKICentral. In all honesty, the decision has yet to be made.

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WHEN the park becomes officially just Kings Island, it would make little to no sense to be pkicentral....there's time. There's a lot of signage to change, a lot of stationery to go through, etc. And that's assuming that CF does change the name back to Kings Island. Although that currently looks like a virtual certainty....

It will be MOST interesting to see how ads refer to the park in about a week or so...if billboards continue to feature the Paramount name and mountain, etc.

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WHEN the park becomes officially just Kings Island, it would make little to no sense to be pkicentral....there's time. There's a lot of signage to change, a lot of stationery to go through, etc. And that's assuming that CF does change the name back to Kings Island. Although that currently looks like a virtual certainty....

It will be MOST interesting to see how ads refer to the park in about a week or so...if billboards continue to feature the Paramount name and mountain, etc.

I'm guessing we won't see any major de-Paramountization until after this season. If there's a Winterfest, they'd start to drop it on us then.

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Happy Dance!

Happy Dance!

In Atlanta!

Ahhhh, we have our parks back without the Paramount Moniker!

I'm standing beside myself!!! ROFL!!!

As I said before!

Kings Island has died

Kings Island has risen

Kings Island WILL COME AGAIN!!!

-adam12

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I've visited KI since 1972, worked there longer than any other job, and have had it become a major part of my life. I thought it would be strange seeing it owned by Cedar Fair, and now, seeing Paramount finally taken away from the park's name......I'm excited about the possibilities this new owner brings. No more Lindner or Paramount interested in just profits, but a company that will care about the park and restore the luster to the KI crown! What excitement the next few years will bring!

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Well, WinterFest isn`t "set up" already. The only visible signs that WinterFest is still around are the trees that are sitting in the back of Swan Lake. It will be interesting to see if they continue to sell WinterFest tickets in the coming weeks. If they do, then it will be an indication that they intend to hold WinterFest this year. We will know one way or the other by Labor Day. Personally, I hope they hold WinterFest again, making modifications to what they learned last year. Hopefully, it can become a profitable event and a way for Cedar Fair to realize revenue at Kings Island as well as Carowinds at a time when they otherwise would be sitting dormant.

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*** Most of ya'll are too young to remember but this is a song that was a big part of Kings Island's Advertising in the mid 1970's. I thought it was appropriate to post this.

So long sad times

Go long bad times

We are rid of you at last

Howdy gay times

Cloudy gray times

You are now a thing of the past

Happy days are here again

The skies above are clear again

So let's sing a song of cheer again

Happy days are here again

Altogether shout it now

There's no one

Who can doubt it now

So let's tell the world about it now

Happy days are here again

Your cares and troubles are gone

There'll be no more from now on

From now on ...

Happy days are here again

The skies above are clear again

So, Let's sing a song of cheer again

Happy times

Happy nights

Happy days

Are here again!

***

Anyway, based on the fact that CF had that website ready to go at the closing, I'm pretty sure that they have all the other changes lined up and ready to go into affect in short order.

You probably won't see a lot done until this weekend is over, but after that I'd say it will be a steady process at all the parks.

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Anyone who thinks changes will wait til next season needs to reread the second sentence of the carefully crafted press release:

Cedar Fair will assume the complete operations and management of the parks immediately.

COMPLETE....Operations AND Management.

Immediately.

These words were chosen carefully. They mean what they mean.

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And that's why they call you "The Interpreter" tongue.gif

TopGun, the reason Soak City is listed and not BB is simply because Soak City is a separate gate admission. You'll notice, for instance, Wildwater Kingdom is not listed for Dorney and Geauga Lake. (Granted, it is listed when you do the mouse-over, but it *is* part of the parks' names. You don't really hear KI called Kings Island and Boomerang Bay...at least, we haven't yet. wink.gif )

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