Rumor Time - UO for sale?

[h20jag]

Found this interesting nugget in the ever-reliable Sentinel....
Sentinel Article

Already checked the couch cushions, we can't buy it. If AB does though, can we expect a "free samples" Hospitality Center?
Jim

 

[Cindy B]

That was an interesting article. $50 For Discovery Cove, I would like that!

Seriously, the ticket possibilities are endless. And I like the "samples" idea as well... hey, it can't hurt!

A shuttle running from both would be good as well.

 

[Buschfan]

It would be awesome if Busch bought UO. Sea World is so close, it makes sense! It would certainly make more sense to buy a park right in Orlando. Busch didn't have much luck with Boardwalk and Baseball and Cypress Gardens because they were so remote to many tourists. Busch would also get a great place to showcase their beers at the City Walk complex and inside the parks.

I can picture the Enchanted Oak restaurant as a hospitality center already! Ummm. free beer...

 

[rocketman23]

This whole article seems a bit far-fetched... but if this did happen, which I don't think it will, they'd probably get more coasters. That's about the only upside.

 

[Afroman]

Well, Vivendi Universal's investors have backed out from buying more bonds from the company because they are classified as "junk bonds" according to The Wall Street Journal. This means pretty much nothing. With VU being a multibillion dollar company and climbing to size up with Time Warner/AOL, the parks are a little spec on the map that doesn't mean much to them until recently. Why would VU spends close to 75 million on new attractions for next year? Not to mention all the little things that new UO pres has done in the past few months. And last but not least we run into a huge problem with a sale occurring. Vivendi just acquired Universal a year and half ago and they even changed their name to justify the buy. "If" VU sells the parks, that means they must sell the very successful studios (as of the past 4 years) and all things oriented with the Universal name. That means the overseas parks would go along with the deal, including the two that are currently being discussed in Germany and Malaysia. These are billion dollar investments and I know VU isn't going under so it would be better as an investment, to hold onto to the Franchise. And if they did sell the parks, they would have to drop the name Universal, unless they left it up to the new owners to make new names for the parks. That would suck...so in my opinion this isn't going to happen. But who knows, crazy things happen.

FYI: If AB buys Universal, it would be great to have such a huge competitor in Orlando (even though UO by it's self is) but the things I have noticed about the Busch parks are that they are dirtier and the employees aren't friendly whatsoever. (no offense but they obviously don't get paid as much as UO and DW employees do.

Okay I'm done with my rant.

 

[Earl]

Well, there can be discussion on this one. The first thing that I wouldn't do is to call this a rumor or an article. It's the rant of a columnist that doesn't know what he should know before he speaks his piece.

There's probably what would seem to be a couple of million angles and thoughts about what could be. In his speculations, about the only thing that's close is that the park has ben sold a few times, but that's not really correct in the way it's implied. The first and foremost thing is that Vivendi doesn't own U.O. by itself. It has a 50% share and the management contract with Blackstone. The only park it owns outright is Hollywood. The Blackstone half used to be owned by Rank. Rank sold their half to Blackstone and as far as I know, that's the only time that half has been sold. The other half originally was Matsu****a. That half, with all of the other Matsu****a Universal holdings besides the parks, was acquired by Seagrams. Seagams was owned by the Bronfman family, who then sold/merged the Universal holdings into Vivendi Universal.

The park has never been on the block by itself, or with any of the other parks. It seems like it would be difficult to ever break the connection between all of the parks and the studios, if that could ever happen. Even then, it would take the consensus of all of those other partners. All said and done, who knows for sure. There are some interesting new players, from Barry Dillard to some large media interests. The parks, from the Vivendi side, are now all part of the newly formed Vivendi Universal Entertainment Grouip. They recently had their first summit meeting at U.O.. I would really suspect that anything were to ever happen that the Entertanimnet Group will remain intact. It's got nowhere to go but to continue to go upward.

 

[Buschfan]

Afroman,

I have encountered rude employees at both UO and BG/SW. Haven't noticed one being worse than the other. Cleaniness has never been a problem at the Busch parks based on my many visits. I know they put the Paramount parks to shame in the cleaniness department. Kings Dominion in Virginia is terrible!

I am amazed at how clean even the Clydesdale's stalls are! I think UO and Busch both run great parks. I don't know anything about the salaries paid between the two though. I do know Busch employees get free beer though!

 

[WebmasterBarry]

Hmmm...I could use my $250 million to buy Universal or for a date with Robinrs. Hmmmm...

 

[EUROPA]

Looks like VU is selling off some of its assets....

http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/020608/media_vivendi_newscorp_2.html


This puls the rumors or Esiner being replaced might make for intresting time in Orlando.

 

[Afroman]

To tell ya the truth, I wouldn't mind if Vivendi sold it's Universal portion to News Corp. Even though they have no theme park experience it doesn't matter, but I would wonder if they did buy Universal, if they would change the name to 20th Century Fox. Or would NC have two studio companies, like AOL/Time Warner (Warner Bros., New Line) and Disney (WD Pictures, Touchstone, Miramax). Well I wouldn't worry about all that yet, it's just my speculation, and I would also be fine if VU kept it but who knows.

 

[larworth]

Earl

How involved does Blackstone get in making business decisions. Oh yeah, who are they?

 

[Earl]

As far as I know, they don't get too involved. The Vivendi side has the management contract. Obviously they need to be assured about their return on investment. I know they show up a couple of time a year.

I don't really know that much about them other than they are seom sort of large investment group. My understanding is that they had a hand in the Six Flags mergers.

www.blackstone.com/

 

[larworth]

Thanks.

Seems to be a pretty good size enterprise (real estate, hedge funds, consulting...). Sounds like the typical financial investor. I'm sure they get to comment on longterm plans and major capital expenditures, but stay out of any real day-to-day decision making.

It does say there were intimately involved in the 6F acquisition; even had a shortlived equity stake. What they learned from that deal probably gave them confidence to invest in Universal (assuming it was after 1991?).

Blackstone has invested in over 60 companies in a variety of industries, geographies and economic environments. Blackstone's current holdings include such diverse companies as Allied Waste, American Axle, Centennial Communications, Graham Packaging and Universal Studios Florida. The total transaction value of deals is approximately $60 billion. In many of its investments Blackstone has partnered with leading corporations around the world, including AOL Time Warner (Six Flags transaction), AT&T (Bresnan transaction), Deutsche Telekom (Callahan Germany transactions), Union Carbide, Union Pacific (CNW transaction), USX and Vivendi