Cedar Fair to acquire Paramount Parks

Wow I did not see that one coming. ;-)

See, I wasn't full of crap.

Let's hope they do wonders with PGA.

Holy flying balls of monkey crap.

Does the fact that it was a "cash purchase" mean that it was purchased with cash on-hand or was this the reason that they got a credit increase?

Well it's not a 2.1b debt load, but a hefty price tag, not too bad on a per park basis though. 270M or so.

That strikes me as a pretty fair price for CBS, and not a bad deal for CF.

Should make for some interesting times.

I think Kinzel went out with a bang.

~Rob Willi

Doesn't the cash just mean that they paid for it with cash, it's not a stock swap? They just don't mention how they got the cash.

Slam Dunk! CF has ohio locked.

Additionally...

When will my CP pass work at PKI?

When will my PKI pass work at CP?

If any cross-pass honoring happens this season I now have double the pass. Does that mean double the fun?

PS- I agree with the Robinator on this one. *This* is The Kinzel's legacy. Great job, Mr. Kinzel!

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Cedar Fair was advised by Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. and Rothschild, Inc., and Bear Stearns is providing $2.0 billion in committed financing in support of the transaction. Squire, Sanders & Dempsey provided legal counsel to Cedar Fair.

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Right in the middle of the article, Skip and MD(John).

Also the article states that the deal will close during the third quarter (June-September) so it is safe to say your CF pass will not work at Paramount, nor vice-versa.

*** This post was edited by redman822 5/22/2006 9:45:12 AM ***

You know, I did RTFA and that still went over my head.

Wow, talk about a way to start your morning.

I spoke with some people at the "home office" this morning (actually they called me ragging on me for not having the news up fast enough), and you shouldn't count on any inter-chain season pass sharing this year.

Also, while none of it is final, at least some of the licensing agreements will be in place for the foreseeable future, since they were just established when CBS split off of Viacom. Spongebob will be around for awhile.

Wow, I hope this doesnt mean alot of stripped themeing and will we see a bunch more "Dominators" or "Thunderhawks" and what not? And what happens now that Cedar Fair owns The Beast?? Or better yet, Son Of Beast? Will "Borg" be re-named for the 2nd time in a row? Will it become something cheesy like "Huge Wierd Looking Sphere Thingy Sitting In Gross Algea Infected Green Water Encounter???"
**damn I had to take too long to post this and didnt get in before that**
*** This post was edited by P18 5/22/2006 9:49:03 AM ***

If you read some of the articles out there they site a 3rd quarter close to the deal. So I wouldn't expect your CF pass to work this year.

3rd quarter also starts in a little over a month. So it could be anywhere from early in the busy season, to after its over. I'm just playing devils advocate though, I would say it's more likely to be later 3rd quarter than it will be early 3rd.

This is great news for Carowinds. Paramount has taken a let's not and say we did approach to this park since they aquired it.

The mystery is, when Cedar Point and King's Island stop being competitors and start being sisters will the competition that has driven innovation at both parks dry up?

As far as re-themeing at the Paramount Parks goes, I don't expect to see much. I'm sure Cedar Fairs deal included license to maintain current signage. Paramount never really made movie themed attraction like Universal does. Maybe they thought they would but it was more like, uh, we're getting a suspended coaster what can we call it? How about Top Gun? Yeah, we can make people listen to 'Danger Zone' the whole time they're in the queue. That's some powerful theaming. Well done, Sheldon.

This is interesting.
Some things I wonder...

1)Will they retain ANY of the paramount/nick licensing? I would assume at the very least they would figure a way to extend the Scooby Doo license, as they have 4 of those rides and it's hard to imagine taking the characters out of them (though not impossible)

2)Will PKD return to its former glory as a well run, clean park?

3)Will they sell off Great America for the land? Probably not, as if they were in the business of selling parks for land they would've done that to Knott's.

4)Will Beast and SOB run even worse?

5)How will CF 'corporate' handle running so many new parks? I would assume they're going to have a keep a good portion of Paramount's management, as they couldn't possibly have enough seaosned, qualified fols internally to do the whole job. And if they're smart, they'll be careful about promoting internal folks without experience above Paramount folks with experience.