Six Flags Entertainment (SIX) in Bid to Acquire Cedar Fair L.P. (FUN) - Reuters

[Leland Wykoff]

Cedar Fair's refusal to comment suggests there is *something* to the Reuters report. 

If this were a totally false rumor and completely incorrect report Cedar Fair could rightly set the record straight.  Now, today.

Cedar Fair has chosen to refuse to comment.  Thus we can be reasonably sure something is afoot.

What we cannot know at this moment is *what* is afoot.  The fact Cedar Fair has declined to repudiate the report unequivocally is telling.

Perhaps, Cedar Fair has not yet received an offer, but expects to receive one soon. 

Perhaps, Cedar Fair plans to make an offer for Six Flags and is playing the beat the clock game.  

Reports of Six Flags personnel having been sighted at King's Island have surfaced online (the veracity of such reports are unknown).

Six Flags is soon to be without a CEO as the current executive is scheduled to soon retire.

Meanwhile, over at SeaWorld, turmoil continues in the executive suite.  The former Carnival Cruise Line executive hired as Sea's CEO abruptly quit after less than a year.  A revolving door seems to have been installed on the CEO's office.

Cedar Fair spent nearly a decade without a significant acquisition--despite having always having driven growth via acquiring accretive properties.  Rather, over the past decade Cedar Fair has disposed of three waterparks, closed a park, and demolished hundreds of hotel rooms.

Suddenly, within two years, FUN has purchased two major waterparks, has an option to purchase a third Schlitterbahn property, acquired the Saw Mill Resort including a marina and golf course, are building two new hotels, an indoor sports facility is due to soon open, and other sports complexes are on the drawing board.

FUN has reduced debt along the way but has also increased debt by fully financing recent acquisitions and, presumably, renovation and refreshment costs as well.  Debt levels remain relatively high--possibly limiting exploiting some opportunities over the past eight years.

The direction of Cedar Fair is difficult to predict.  Recall, Matt Ouimet is still onboard, filling the role of growth and stregic executive.

FUN stood still for near a decade. Perhaps they now plan to rollover.

A partial combination could make sense for both chains--take small or underperforming parks from both chains and create a third company.  

Or FUN may be looking to shed some properties, or acquire some SIX parks.

Understand that Thomas Cook Bankruptcy has placed several hotel/resort properties on the block.

Merlin Entertainment is also under a merger deal, partially involving private equity, and they operate resort properties along with amusement parks and second gates.

Additionally, private equity is making a move on Great Wolf Resorts, again.

Lots of changes and a general shuffling seems to be underway in the entertainment business.  Complex deals could be around the corner.

[disco2000]

^well they were at KI...

[Joshua]

My heart sank when I saw this. I'll never forget what Six Flags did to Geauga Lake and Sea World Ohio. 

[shizzzon]

Looks like Kings Island did make one mistake.

 

They used the acronym TEOTWAWKI for the wrong event.

 

Better put tape over the entire construction area with a picture of Firehawk on it and use new headline-

 

TEOTWAWKI- Six Flags to offer bid to Cedar Fair.

[LintemuthStudios]

CONFUSED SCREAMING

[Benjamin22]

1 minute ago, LintemuthStudios said:

CONFUSED SCREAMING

Guess that pretty much confirms the rumors at least have some truth to them when also taking into account they haven’t made a press release.

[Browntggrr]

Good business practice, especially concerning publicly traded companies, is to listen to all offers.  But it doesn't mean it's going to happen.

It's interesting that this news would be leaked.  Or was it leaked with an ulterior motive for public/ customer backlash to squash it??  

Easier to say no to a deal if most are not behind it......

[Phantom Theater]

People who remember the sale of Paramount Parks to Cedar Fair: how did that go down? I was only 11 at the time and barely remember it. I’m curious about how people felt and did we know CF was interested before the parks were purchased? 

[Hawaiian Coasters 325]

I believe they cancelled the conference because they knew that they would be bombarded with questions about the Six Flags thing and they don't want to talk about it right now.

[Snowball]

44 minutes ago, Hawaiian Coasters 325 said:

I believe they cancelled the conference because they knew that they would be bombarded with questions about the Six Flags thing and they don't want to talk about it right now.

I really hope this is all it is. I can't stand to think about KI going the way of Geauga Lake and Sea World Ohio.

[TheRickster]

Well this would be a merger and not just a purchase so a bit different than the Paramount - CF purchase. I'd expect to see Cedar Fair take over a lot of the Admin stuff within SF since it seems like that's where they have struggled.

 

I hope it doesn't go through, even IF they agreed on something, it would likely still have to be approved by special committee and I don't know if it would because of the size of company it would create in the industry.

[Kenban]

13 hours ago, ldhudsonjr said:

That's a really interesting point that I hadn't considered at all. If I recall correctly though, aren't there parks in the chain that Cedar Fair has signaled they're open to selling? I feel like I've heard talk of CF wanting to sell Great America for a while.

Cedar Fair was unhappy about a football stadium which was being built next to the park, which would have a serious affect on the parks parking, and the ability to operate the park between construction and then games and events which would occur, my understanding is that the park is not very profitable so that likely factored into the decision but I do not remember this being announced as a reason.  So they agreed to sell the park to a local company, the sale ended up falling apart and an agreement was reached with the 49ers to limit impacts to the park.  This was long ago enough that it was when Dick Kinzel was CEO.  To the best of my knowledge Cedar Fair has not indicated any willingness to sell any parks recently, and has stated in several interviews they wish to acquire more parks.

13 hours ago, ldhudsonjr said:

That's the one they recently bought land they had previously been leasing right? What I read was that they had done that to make it easier to sell in the future.

 

They have been trying to buy the land for years so that they could stop leasing it and actually own the land under the park.  The city was going to sell the land to a developer but the park had a lease which gave them right of first refusal.  Which means in the event the city plans to sell the land the park can refuse to allow the sale and purchase it for the same price as the original buyer.  Cedar Fair executed this provision and purchased the land.  If they had not done so the park would have had to close at some point in the future.  The purchase had nothing to do with a future sale of the park, and had more to do with preserving the ability for it to be a park.

 

[homestar92]

1 hour ago, Phantom Theater said:

People who remember the sale of Paramount Parks to Cedar Fair: how did that go down? I was only 11 at the time and barely remember it. I’m curious about how people felt and did we know CF was interested before the parks were purchased? 

Most of the people I associated with (this was long before I was interested in roller coasters so I was associating with non-enthusiasts) interpreted the news as Cedar Point, not Cedar Fair, being the ones acquiring the park, and believed that we were going to be getting a 300+ foot coaster every year from now on.

Obviously, that was not realistic, but people had a certain perception about Cedar Point and were expecting that Kings Island would turn into Cedar Point South. Which I am thankful didn't happen.

 

4 minutes ago, TheRickster said:

Well this would be a merger and not just a purchase so a bit different than the Paramount - CF purchase. I'd expect to see Cedar Fair take over a lot of the Admin stuff within SF since it seems like that's where they have struggled.

 

I hope it doesn't go through, even IF they agreed on something, it would likely still have to be approved by special committee and I don't know if it would because of the size of company it would create in the industry.

I don't think they would encounter any issues with such a merger. Keep in mind, the two chains really aren't in competition as it is because there is very little overlap in their current markets. Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay area are the only markets where both currently operate a park, and in both of those markets there are other amusement parks outside of either chain.

[ThrillKingsFitzy]

https://www.cleveland.com/business/2019/10/six-flags-pursuing-purchase-of-cedar-fair-including-cedar-point-reuters-reports.html

Don't know if you guys saw this, but if the deal goes through, Cedar Point will be one of the chosen parks. 

[LintemuthStudios]

 

Hmm, does this have any merit?

[ThrillKingsFitzy]

5 minutes ago, LintemuthStudios said:

Hmm, does this have any merit?

Amusement Insiders is getting the info off the stocks themselves, so it should be very accurate.

[Hawaiian Coasters 325]

I hope that if something big happens, a merger what Brendon describes in the video is what happens. Imagine Magic Mountain and Great Adventure ran like Cedar Fair parks. We would probably see gigas in those parks. 

[Sixflags82]

17 minutes ago, Fitzcoasts14 said:

Amusement Insiders is getting the info off the stocks themselves, so it should be very accurate.

What did he say nothing is showing for me

[ThrillKingsFitzy]

In his other videos he had info

I didn't watch his latest update yet, but it is literally explaining the whole thing.

 

Edited October 3, 2019 by Fitzcoasts14
Forgot something

[Phantom Theater]

I know nothing of the topic, but maybe someone here does. Would this cause an issue with becoming a monopoly? The only competitors to a merger like this would be Universal and Disney. They would own over 30 parks in the US. 

[Benjamin22]

1 minute ago, Phantom Theater said:

I know nothing of the topic, but maybe someone here does. Would this cause an issue with becoming a monopoly? The only competitors to a merger like this would be Universal and Disney. They would own over 30 parks in the US. 

Nope not at all, in fact even after the merger Disney would still have almost 3x as much attendees then a theoretical merged company. They definitely wouldn’t be preventing other companies from entering the market. 

[Sixflags82]

Heres what the map would look like

[westcoaster]

Too many Flags over usa.. Say its a nightmare

[cdubbs727]

Kings Island community last Friday, after reading about Vortex removal: Things couldn't possibly get any more upsetting...

Six Flags: Hold my Batman souvenir cup. 

[Hawaiian Coasters 325]

Taylor makes a great point in this video!

[BoddaH1994]

41 minutes ago, cdubbs727 said:

Kings Island community last Friday, after reading about Vortex removal: Things couldn't possibly get any more upsetting...

Six Flags: Hold my Batman souvenir cup. 

I think you mean, “Hold my Batman souvenir cup brought to you by Twix.”

[SonofBaconator]

1 hour ago, Hawaiian Coasters 325 said:

Taylor makes a great point in this video!

He's credible in that he's been to a lot of amusement parks across the globe and can give detailed reviews on each of them but I wouldn't rely on him for stuff like this.

[TheRickster]

5 hours ago, homestar92 said:

I don't think they would encounter any issues with such a merger. Keep in mind, the two chains really aren't in competition as it is because there is very little overlap in their current markets. Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay area are the only markets where both currently operate a park, and in both of those markets there are other amusement parks outside of either chain.

I think it would become an issue with the size of the company vs. the size of their competitors. There are a lot of weird laws and roadblocks with mergers and I'm sure with the industry already being so limited they would run up against quite a few walls to climb.

[Hawaiian Coasters 325]

2 minutes ago, SonofBaconator said:

He's credible in that he's been to a lot of amusement parks across the globe and can give detailed reviews on each of them but I wouldn't rely on him for stuff like this.

oh yeah, but his points sound pretty accurate. I know he follows the industry in terms of business and stuff as well. 

[JonahWilliamson]

10 minutes ago, SonofBaconator said:

He's credible in that he's been to a lot of amusement parks across the globe and can give detailed reviews on each of them but I wouldn't rely on him for stuff like this.

Yeaaaaa..... Vortex isnt closing due to the brakes..... Remember when it was down for like two weeks for a cracked support. Bring up the rides history. Dont just find something to make a video.