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Six Flags and Cedar Fair to Merge

Rob

Rob

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It is being reported that Six Flags have made a big to acquire Cedar Fair in a cash and stock offer, and that Cedar Fair are considering the offer.

No comments have yet been made by either company.

I can only hope that this is either not true or does not go through. It would mean Six Flags have what would essentially be a complete monopoly on regional theme parks in the US and the prospect of Cedar Point et al. having their rides become Batman and Superman makes me feel ill.

What are everyone's thoughts?
 
If this happens Six Flags will truly become America's (Not to mention they'll own Canada's two biggest parks) version of Merlin...

It does make me ponder though why would Cedar Fair even consider selling their major parks which have had loads of investment put into them over the past couple of years compared to what SF has done...I could sort of get it if this was some of the smaller parks like Michigan's Adventure, but would they really let go of Cedar Point?

I don't think fans of Carowinds, King's Island, Canada's Wonderland etc would want to bought by a company who's coasters are at best RMCs when they've been getting B&Ms over the past decade. Plus it would be a bit weird to see places like Philadelphia/New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and D.C to have two Six Flags parks!

I always though Six Flags should have less parks. I do get why they would invest crap into their smaller parks, but it would make sense if say they'd owned no more than 8 and those 8 get bigger investments.
 
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Cedar point is a massive bucket list park for me and after hearing how six flags run things and the investments they make, this makes me slightly nervous.

Lack of competition is never a good thing. Surely it’s not serious?
 
Ted said:
It does make me ponder though why would Cedar Fair even consider selling their major parks which have had loads of investment put into them over the past couple of years compared to what SF has done...I could sort of get it if this was some of the smaller parks like Michigan's Adventure, but would they really let go of Cedar Point?
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There are very few facts at the moment, but I understood it to be an acquisition of the company, not an acquisition of the parks from the company.
 
Rick said:
There are very few facts at the moment, but I understood it to be an acquisition of the company, not an acquisition of the parks from the company.
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Yeah that's true. CF didn't exactly buy Paramount in 2006 but just their parks. Still it's pretty weird to me.
 
It feels like there are a lot of reasons this won't happen, but let's see.

I've had sucky days at Six Flags and Cedar Fair parks in the past few years. I don't think the difference is quite what it was.

Six Flags have been building less coasters but when you have 'coaster parks' a renewed focus isn't a bad thing.
 
The more I think about this the more it just does not make sense. Six Flags CEO, Jim Reid-Anderson, is stepping down early next year and surely such a massive takeover would be more likely at a time of stability right at the top of the company?

Equally parks like Knotts Berry Farm just do not fit in with Six Flags current portfolio. And a park like Knotts competes directly with Magic Mountain, would Six Flags really want to operate two parks that are so close to each other?

Lance at Screamscape has suggested that maybe Six Flags are offering to buy one of Cedar Fair's smaller parks, but there has been an inaccurate leak that has blown out of proportion. That would seem more feasible.
 
Okay, so more fuel to add to the fire. Cedar Fair have cancelled an appearance at an annual consumer and media conference today. Their CEO, Richard Zimmerman, was expected to take part.

Something is going on.

Does anyone have any idea of how the competitions authority works in the USA?
 
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Sentiment isn’t going to stop a transaction like this, just whether it offers shareholder value. The economies of scale would likely play some part in driving that value.

That said, I’d be a little pissed if I’d organised a trip to Cedar Point and ended up at Six Flags Sandusky.
 
venny said:
Sentiment isn’t going to stop a transaction like this, just whether it offers shareholder value. The economies of scale would likely play some part in driving that value.

That said, I’d be a little ****ed if I’d organised a trip to Cedar Point and ended up at Six Flags Sandusky.
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We were litraly looking to book breakers today for coastermania 2020 and now heard this.... Crud...

 
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