Busch Entertainment likely to sell to Blackstone for $3 billion

Re: Busch Entertainment likely to sell to Blackstone for $3 billion

Well, we at least know Blackstone has the chops and know-how to run parks, unlike the morons who scrwed up at HRP (AND Freestyle Park!)

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Coaster Junkie from NH
Long live the Yankee Cannoball!
All the world's a stage & I'm just here to build the sets.

Re: Busch Entertainment likely to sell to Blackstone for $3 billion

That seems like a really good deal. Loosely figuring all parks attendance at around 20 million per year, at $50 per-cap including attendance (just a lowball guess) they would cashflow over a billion per year. I like that Blackstone seems to be more in the buy-and-hold mentality, too. Hopefully this will be good.

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"I've been born again my whole life." -SAVED

Re: Busch Entertainment likely to sell to Blackstone for $3 billion

Only, what, a billion more than the Paramount Parks?? That tells you what a deal Busch is and what a rip Paramount was!!

Re: Busch Entertainment likely to sell to Blackstone for $3 billion

Perhaps it tells you a bit about the current economy too.

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"I go out at 3 o' clock for a quart of milk and come home to my son treating his body like an amusement park!" - Estelle Costanza

Re: Busch Entertainment likely to sell to Blackstone for $3 billion

There are obviously significant differences in the actions of a private equity firm and those of a "mom and pop" CEO with no experience in big business.

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com - My Blog - Twitter - Video

Re: Busch Entertainment likely to sell to Blackstone for $3 billion

Fongers!

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www.mtbshred.com

Re: Busch Entertainment likely to sell to Blackstone for $3 billion

I think the big question is how will Blackstone intergrate Busch Entertainment with their other operations. Will they merge it with Merlin, NBC Universal, both or neither?

Re: Busch Entertainment likely to sell to Blackstone for $3 billion

Blackstone won't have any stake in NBC Universal. And they own (a majority I believe) of Merlin. I don't understand your question.

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com - My Blog - Twitter - Video

Re: Busch Entertainment likely to sell to Blackstone for $3 billion

I misspoke; I meant Univeral Orlando. My questions are will Busch entertainment become apart of Merlin and will there be any consolidation or cross promotion between the Busch parks and Universal Orlando?

Re: Busch Entertainment likely to sell to Blackstone for $3 billion

I'm not sure if there's a reason to combine operations, though the original sources I heard from (months ago now) suggested that it was specifically Merlin that was the unit moving on the acquisition. I never quite understood that, as I would assume that Merlin as its own entity is not capitalized enough to make that kind of buy without the mothership. So goes my understanding of corporate finance!

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com - My Blog - Twitter - Video

Re: Busch Entertainment likely to sell to Blackstone for $3 billion

Jeff said:
I never quite understood that, as I would assume that Merlin as its own entity is not capitalized enough to make that kind of buy without the mothership. So goes my understanding of corporate finance!

No, you had it right. They aren't capitalized enough to do it as is. So, either they are doing an IPO, as mentioned previously, or Blackstone is funding a new "fund", that will buy the parks unit, and Merlin manages it in a cross licensing agreement.

Re: Busch Entertainment likely to sell to Blackstone for $3 billion

KYJoe said:
Fongers!

You guys were right. This came back to me. Like I said, at least Blackstone (and it's Merlin division) has expereince in running parks.

Last edited by Hopman, October 5, 2009, 4:00P

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Coaster Junkie from NH
Long live the Yankee Cannoball!
All the world's a stage & I'm just here to build the sets.

Re: Busch Entertainment likely to sell to Blackstone for $3 billion

So any chance they have a soft spot for suspended coasters?

Fongers! LOL

$1 Billion a year on admission alone. That's a real eye-opener as to the amount of money involved. I remember a while back, someone here mentioned something about Disney World (or the Magic Kingdom at least) being able to sustain itself on soda sales alone. But I've also heard that the Busch parks are the most expensive parks in the industry to operate.

So will, the parks be re-branded as Merlin Gardens?

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AV Matt
Long live the Big Bad Wolf

Re: Busch Entertainment likely to sell to Blackstone for $3 billion

I think there may be a twist to all of this that people aren't expecting.

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com - My Blog - Twitter - Video

Re: Busch Entertainment likely to sell to Blackstone for $3 billion

Please let it be the resurrection of BBW [crossing fingers]

Re: Busch Entertainment likely to sell to Blackstone for $3 billion

In what universe do you think that's gonna happen? The ride is already coming down.

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com - My Blog - Twitter - Video

Re: Busch Entertainment likely to sell to Blackstone for $3 billion

Is it really, didnt realize that. You said a twist people weren't expecting, my irrational hope would be that twist would be keeping BBW.

Re: Busch Entertainment likely to sell to Blackstone for $3 billion

Jeff said:
In what universe do you think that's gonna happen? The ride is already coming down.

The ride was standing as of Sunday afternoon... (not that I think there is much hope of it staying) but it is still standing.

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Danny Biggerstaff CoAsTeRDaN

Re: Busch Entertainment likely to sell to Blackstone for $3 billion

Lets be specific. Track is standing.. Trains...Not so much..

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