Six Flags makes an offer to purchase Cedar Fair?

Crisis over. Move along, nothing to see here.

https://seekingalpha.com/news/3504029-cedar-fair-turns-away-six-flags

That was a hefty deal. According to wiki, Paramount was purchased by CF for 1.24 Billion. I know there is more behind the CF chain, but that is still some serious money.

Wonder how much CF would want for the sale, or if it was term related more than money?

Cartwright said:

Just Coasting said:

If you think I complain now, just wait if Six Flags takes ownership of this park.

Just out of sheer curiosity, what would it take for you not to complain? I feel like one day CEO God and CFO Jesus will open a theme park called "Heaven Point" and you'll still bitch that they don't know what they're doing.

Hey you listen here. The Holy Land Experience is a wonderful time. ;)

Comparing Six Flags 4 billion dollar offer to Cedar Fair's 1.2 billion dollar acquisition of Paramount Parks does make the offer seem reasonable. On the other hand, the Blackstone Group this week paid over 2.5 billion for a 65% interest in Great Wolf Lodge. It seems that Cedar Fair should be valued at more than 500 million over Great Wolf Lodge, where Great Wolf Lodge has an estimated yearly revenue of $325 million?

So just to confirm: the sale didn’t go through, correct? I hope to God it DIDN’T. Six Flags completely ruined Geagua Lake. I hope & PRAY to God that Cedar Fair will never ever sell, and I HOPE that Zimmerman and his team ALL read this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One thing to keep in mind, Paramount wanted to get out of the amusement park business. There aren't a lot of companies out there that would want to take on and operate two amusement parks. (Two really). As such, Paramount probably sold them for a bit less than they might have been worth. Cedar Point, on the other hand, is primarily an amusement park operator. They aren't going to want to sell a bit below value to get out of the business.

cptedsdisciple2 said:
Cedar Fair ruined it. I'd love to see new owners with a more inclusive, less sawnctimonious, less greed-based culture. .

Um, any corporation is greed-based. That's why they're in the business to begin with.

"Six Flags had offered to acquire Cedar Fair for around $70 per share, to be paid for the most part by using Six Flags shares as currency, but also funded with a small cash component."

The 4 Billion was mostly stock. I would not want that either.

"Cedar Fair responded that Six Flags’ bid was too low, not least because it did not compensate Cedar Fair shareholders for giving up on the company’s tax-advantageous publicly traded partnership. This allows the company to pay out the majority of its earnings to shareholders without first paying U.S. federal or state income taxes."

This, the main sticking point is the tax structure of Cedar Fair which is an LP. Where as Six flags is a C-CORP. I have a feeling Six Flags would defer the transactional tax bill to unit holders once the merger was complete to a C-CORP.

Jake10 said:
So just to confirm: the sale didn’t go through, correct? I hope to God it DIDN’T. Six Flags completely ruined Geagua Lake. I hope & PRAY to God that Cedar Fair will never ever sell, and I HOPE that Zimmerman and his team ALL read this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There was never a sale.

There was an offer from SIX to purchase FUN. FUN examined the offer, and rejected it out of hand. Over and done, after giving the YouTubers a week to generate hand-wringing content and "analysis".

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

noggin said:

Um, any corporation is greed-based. That's why they're in the business to begin with.

Agreed.

Thank goodness that scare is over. I would seriously never go back if they ever took Snoopy out for Looney Toons 😳👎

Most people view the Paramount purchase by Cedar Fair as involving a premium. At least in part, CF was looking to expand its footprint into areas with growing population and was willing to pay a premium for it. Typically in acquisitions of a given public company, there is a premium paid over then market value. Cedar Fair has a market cap of about $3.2-3.4 billion. $4 billion offer by Six Flags was about 17-25% premium over market cap. Cedar Fair board determined that was not sufficient to go to unitholders for approval. Not clear if CF will counter with a higher offer or if SF will do so. And how much of a premium it would take for CF to accept (or at least recommend to unitholders to approve). We may see at some point. Or not.

I Know the deal is done for now, but I hope they never merge. This is not just about Geauga lake, but for the sake of CP and any CF park that has good operations, quality rides, and an overall quality experience when visiting their parks. They may not own as many as six flags, but SF seems to care more about quantity then quality. Also....those annoying superheroes. They're everywhere you go. In stores, parks, movies, clothes, shoes, food, costumes, Youtube ads, games, pastries and desserts, you name it. As I go about my daily routine and running errands, I constantly see a superhero-related something-or-another. I can't picture Millennium force as Superman or TTD as Batman. Not to mention the ads all over the park. I have been to some Six flags parks, and they weren't terrible, but not as good quality as cedar fair. Six flags would turn CP into an everyday "Wal-mart" park.

How about that purchase offer now?
Six Flags stock plunges, China partners are defaulting, May lead to cancellation of all China projects.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/six-flags-plunges-warning-may-140035979.html

What stuck out to me was why were sales slow in 4Q. Many of their Holiday seasons have been running for longer than CF’s. Could demand for these events drop off after a few years despite having several coasters running?

I can't speak to the event as a whole, but I went to SFGAm on December 26th, and granted it was unseasonably warm in Chicagoland that day, the place was packed on a Thursday. I didn't even get to use my dining plan due to the insane lines at the food stands. So I'm also a little surprised that the numbers are down in Q4.

Maybe now is the time for Cedar Fair to counter offer a purchase of Six Flags???

^^ The poor overall numbers in the quarter could be the result of giving away the gate (ie. gold pass) along with extending season with dining plans included. If the people attending aren't spending much new monies and you're just incurring additional costs, then its a net loss.

I would like to know more about the situation China. How large is their exposure if it all goes upside down?

I'm getting my info from Wiki (yea, I know), but a quick glance at the past decade shows a continual pattern of 1) plans to build new parks (mainly overseas, including China, Vietnam, Dubai, etc...), and 2) acquisition of older parks.

This pattern started just a few years after being managed into a financial grave punctuated by...guess what? 1) overbuilding and 2) acquisition.

Kingda Ka is a pretty good symbol for the chain as a whole. It's bigger...and was built to simply be bigger without any care for being better, with the asinine belief that somehow bigger meant better. Point being, it seems like the chain has a historical pattern of having a difficult time pausing and bettering what they already have in exchange for becoming bigger...badder...more land! more parks! more!

This latest news would make it seem that the attempt to purchase Cedar Fair was more or less a hail-mary, but the obvious writing on the wall was (thankfully) enough to motivate CF to say "thanks but no thanks".

What a mess.

Sounds like SF didn't learn with Geauga Lake.