News: SeaWorld Entertainment reportedly making bid for Cedar Fair

SeaWorld Entertainment Inc. has offered to buy amusement park owner Cedar Fair for around $3.4 billion, people with knowledge of the matter said.

Read more from Bloomberg

For reference the SIX offer was $70 a share or $600mm more and they rejected it (not even put to vote). Obviously there is some more debt this time but the Market cap/ stock price during the SIX offer is around the same (even before todays jump) so on paper this offer might not even be as good .

Interesting that the jump triggered a LULD pause.

I'm curious to see where this goes.

Considering the revolving door of leadership at SeaWorld over the last few years, on initial glance this reeks of either desperation or "look, a distraction!" on their part, for whatever reason.

I feel like the SeaWorld name has definitely lost a lot of its luster over the last decade and change, let alone from the days of SeaWorld Ohio, so one would think it would also be declined similarly to the Six Flags offer, but who's to say.

I see this failing like the Six flags one...

Cedar Fair to review unsolicited non-binding proposal from SeaWorld

Cedar Fair, L.P. (NYSE: FUN), a leader in regional amusement parks, water parks and immersive entertainment, today confirmed that it has received an unsolicited non-binding proposal from SeaWorld Entertainment, Inc.

Consistent with its fiduciary duties, and in consultation with its independent legal and financial advisors, the Cedar Fair Board of Directors will carefully review and consider the proposal to determine the course of action that it believes is in the best interest of the Company and its unitholders. Cedar Fair unitholders do not need to take any action at this time.

Perella Weinberg Partners L.P. is serving as financial advisor to Cedar Fair and Weil, Gotshal & Manges is serving as legal counsel.

And the very existence of Kings Dominion now hangs in the balance...

Anyone who had the misfortune of visiting BGW last season will shudder at this possibility.

Also, their top pass is currently $375 (unlimited membership) and only includes parking at the home park of purchase. Count me as one that hopes they don't do this.

Scott Ross is just looking for a way to grow the company so his firm can sell. There's nothing strategic going on here. The revolving door of leadership, especially seeing Joel Manby leave, well respected as he is, is a pretty good indicator that the board is hostile toward anything that might actually be good for the company long-term.

SeaWorld headquarters to move to Sandusky, right?

From the bit that I'm learning about SeaWorld point my vote as not wanting this to proceed.

James Parker jr said:

Also, their top pass is currently $375 (unlimited membership) and only includes parking at the home park of purchase. Count me as one that hopes they don't do this.

I don't want SEAS anywhere near CF, but I would welcome their pass pricing.

The price point can certainly be argued to be a net positive for in park experience, but pretty much ALL of the pass benefits (even parking) being constrained only to the home park of purchase is awful, IMO. It's also confusing, as they bury that fact deep in the FAQs. Even in Florida that can happen between BGT and SWO.

I'm not a fan of this idea at first glance. I have passes to all of the major Florida theme parks, as well as CP, and in my opinion, the experience at SeaWorld is always the worst of the lot, from food quality, to service, to basic management and customer-facing operations.

There are pros and cons to both chains' management. Having visited the SEAS parks, many times since 2018 and especially during the past 18 months, I still rank SeaWorld Orlando higher than any CF park as far as overall experience goes. As far as food goes, CF is kicking ass. The quality is really good and the service, especially at CP and KI has been fantastic and the food has been really good. But, while the service isn't as good, the food, especially at SWO has been really good. Of course, you can have a bad day at any park. I had chicken at Universal Orlando that turned into gritty paste. And that park has tickets the cost around $200 for the day.

As far as the parking thing goes, I used my Florida platinum pass at BGW and my buddy used his BGW platinum at SWO and BGT, last month and we got preferred parking at the non-home parks, when the preferred lots weren't full. I WISH the CF platinum pass got us preferred parking at ANY of their parks, especially our home park.

A big hope is that if SEAS wants to treat the small parks as poorly as CF has, that they would just sell them off... At least 6 has added stuff to their smaller parks over the years.

Zoug68 said:

As far as food goes, CF is kicking ass. The quality is really good and the service, especially at CP and KI has been fantastic and the food has been really good.

This is something I have not heard before. The only benefit I would like of SEAS taking over CF would be to the Food Services, CP is routinely awful in food prep, holding, presentation and overall service. But to each their own I guess.

^Have to disagree. Even on crowded park days in the last few years at CP, I've been able to get high quality food without much of a wait at multiple places at CP. The new offerings they've introduced in the last few years have been gigantic strides in the right direction.

Correct me if I am wrong but wasn't Scott Ross part of the failed Apollo merger back in 2010? Maybe the 2nd time is the charm? With the persistent changes at SeaWorld Corporate (changing CEO's, etc), is it the best path forward for CF? What would be the debt of the combined company?

I worked a contract in corporate back when SEAS was still pretty new as an independent company, and you could sense the legacy of Anheuser-Busch, and the potential to be great. They needed new talent but weren't willing to pay for it.

When Hill Path came in, things went down hill, and morale sunk as they let people go. I've heard much of the same thing about his previous involvement with Great Wolf. And yes, he was a part of the Apollo fiasco.

Hill Path is a great example of how not to run a big fund, because most of their investment is in one company.

I may be in the minority here, but I actually wouldn't mind CF and SW combining. As pointed out before, SW management has been kind of rocky lately going through so many CEOs. Also, I don't think SW has been in that great of finanical shape as there was some difficulty paying off Iron Gwazi. So can they really afford this? That would be the main concern. But, what if this were to open to door for CF to make a counter-offer? Maybe that's what they are hoping for. Going that route may make more sense. BGT and SWO are my home parks and I enjoy them. If that were to happen, I would just hope they keep their staff that is experienced with caring for the animals. But I don't think CF can afford it either. I think they will reject it just like they did with Six Flags.

I could see FUN making an offer for SEAS in spite of their corporate aversion to animal acts, but quite honestly I doubt that FUN will accept a buyout offer from anybody unless the company is broken up first. And I don’t see that happening, either.

A merger of some sort? Maybe. But not a takeover.

For this to make sense you have to understand the history of FUN prior to their purchase of Paramount Parks, and how that early expansion affected the true ownership of the company and the membership of its board. When FUN made most of those earlier purchases…certainly when they bought Worlds of Fun, Michigan’s Adventure, and Knott’s Berry Farm…the purchases were structured more like mergers, where FUN took over the park, but the previous owners got a seat on the board and an ownership stake in FUN. This means the people who built those parks are still involved in some way with the ownership and operation of those parks. The sale to FUN allowed those family members to step away from the day to day operations of their parks, know that a competent and capable team could now run things, and still maintain some degree of oversight, ownership, and yes, control over their parks.
A cash offer like the one SEAS has proposed can offer a very nice cash-out opportunity, but it also means an end to that ownership stake that in at least one case has lasted for several generations. The cash might be nice, but it can be hard to walk away when your name is literally on the front door. Especially if you can still take the long term dividends.

That’s why I am reasonably certain that a straight buy-out of Cedar Fair is simply Knott going to happen. Even if it seems to make good financial sense, I think it will be a fight at the very least, much as we saw with the ill-fated Apollo deal.

—Dave Althoff, Jr.