Tussauds Group on sale for £500 million

Posted | Contributed by Jeff

Tussauds Group, the owner Alton Towers and Heide-Park, is to be put up for sale by Charterhouse Development Capital, its venture capital owner, on the back of record results to be published in just over two weeks' time. Charterhouse purchased the group in 1998 for £352 million.

Read more from The Daily Telegraph.

Vater's avatar
Yikes. Here's hoping we never see Six Flags Alton or Six Flags Soltau.

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-Vater
'These pretzels are making me thirsty.'
Take a ride...

Draegs's avatar
::Shudders at Vater's comment::

Be afraid...be very afraid.

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James Draeger
-Captain Sarcasm (aka Sour Boy)

Considering their current financial situation.. I HIGHLY doubt Six Flags can come up with the $ 790,891,737.34 asking price (as of this morning's markets) seeing how they already have a long term debt of $2.3 billion (as of last quarter).

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June 11th, 2001 - Gemini 100
VertiGo Rides - 82
Technical Services - 2002
Frightzone Screamster - 2002

How about Busch Gardens - Alton Towers. I like the sound of that - or maybe Disney's Alton Towers. :)
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SWOOSH
MIG-The Midwest Information Guide http://sfne.com/~swoosh
also a note... Thorpe Park and Chessington WoA are owned by Tassauds, as well as many London tourist attractions such as the aquarium and wax museum.
I wonder is the services of John Wardley come with this deal?
Well, I've got $10,000, maybe if we pool all of our money....

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The whole power structure of the Net is based on the inalienable right to flame. He who flames the loudest and strongest will prevail, for he will have maintained purity of essence by not compromising his principles.

For now, highest bidder is Six Flags...

It would be so awesome to see AIR getting repainted into Superman Ulitmate Flight (They can leave same color on lift).

Here are some of my ideas:

-Six Flags Heide Park, Six Flags Great Britain, Six Flags Germany, Six Flags Thorpe Park. Anything would be so awesome.

But I still doubt it all will happen, but anything could happen.

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RCT2 recreation of SFNE coming this summer!

Jeff's avatar
Have you lost your mind?

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com - Sillynonsense.com
"The world rotates to The Ultra-Heavy Beat!" - KMFDM

He's gone, Jeff. Personally, I'd like for a private corp. or something like that to keep on the Tussads name. I would be happy if Busch Gardens bought it, but I doubt it. Paramount wants parks outside the company, and hey, it's not as bad a choice as some others, but I won't say any names...

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Mmmmmmmm...Chocolate!

Hey, why do you Bash Six Flags and then kiss ass to PR reps hold your events at SF parks? Kinda hypocritical eh? You act like SF would come in and bulldoze the place(s)!

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It's Giant, it's Inverted, it's a Boomerang, Beeyatch!

boblogone's avatar
How does the Koch credit line look these days? ;)
I hope a park like Busch Gardens or somebody else takes it over then...Sixflags

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Webmaster,
Brenton http://kpexpress.coolfreepages.com*** This post was edited by KpExpress 2/24/2003 3:46:13 PM ***

Jeff said:

"Have you lost your mind?"

I just thought it would be great. Look at Warner Bros. parks. If Six Flags try harder I think they can make it. I'm one of few Six Flags' supporters. If they do buy it, then I would be happy, if other park chain buy it, I still would be happy. Don't matter to me though.

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RCT2 recreation of SFNE coming this summer!

Jeff's avatar
"Hey, why do you Bash Six Flags and then kiss ass to PR reps hold your events at SF parks?"

Oh, so I'm hypocritical ass kisser am I? Funny, I would think that most people would applaud those who freely form and express their opinions without compromise.

And for the record, all Six Flags parks are not created equal.

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com - Sillynonsense.com
"The world rotates to The Ultra-Heavy Beat!" - KMFDM

Alton and Heide are on my list of "to-do" after graduation (end of this year), but if SF were to buy these two, the desire to spend that kind of money would be reduced. I do want to get to these parks for the coasters, but they also from all pictures and accounts I've read have an air about them like Kennywood and Hershey of a traditional, laid back completely UNcorporate atmosphere. If SF were to buy them, they would definitely change some things around just because that's what SF is all about. You can't expect a company to get their hands on some new property and not put their "seal" on it so to speak. I'd just hate to see two parks that seem to be part of a dying breed fall to the corporate giant (and before I get nailed for SF bashing, yes I feel Cedar Fair parks have this atmosphere too, along with Disney and Paramount. Only Busch seems to be able to supress its corporate nature to any extent.)

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"You know we got a good thing goin' and I don't wanna see it end" --Reel Big Fish
-- Brett

Personally, I do not want to see "SUX" Flags sterilize these parks. They look completely amazing, and knowing Six Flags, they'd ruin every inch of them. Hell, they can barely take care of their parks HERE, let alone the ones that make up the Tussauds chain. I'd would dearly hate to see Six Flags Alton Towers or Six Flags Heide Park. I mean, granted, some of what Six Flags does is ok. They give us some great coasters (mostly), which is awesome They have gotten some things right before. However, I feel like this is just the wrong move for these parks. When the company can barely provide good customer service or an overall pleasant experience at their current parks, that just doesn't bode well for any new acquisitions.

Justin

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Never look a gift horse in the mouth, because horses have very bad breath

I've seen first hand how Six Flags can put ba-jillions of capital into a park and still leave it without any sort of direction towards market sucess, other than backwards.

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Jes
Jes's Roller Coasters DJ Jes
Six Flags Worlds Of Adventure Ride-Ops Crew 2002-2003(Have Fun Trying To Find Me!)

tell me one company that is succesful and doesn't have debt. There isn't one. SFInc. is working on its debt, reason that only 3 new coasters are being built at American SF parks (Scream, 2 S:UF can't think of others) and the ride rotation program is being used. These two parks could be managed well and would be excellent investments

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"I waited 4 hours for X and all i got was this stupid t-shirt"
Coaster Count: 112

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