Six Flags is synonymous with thrills, laughter, and screams of joy. However, in June, 2006, investors were not laughing. As KMGH Denver reports (2006), shares of Six Flags Inc. dropped sharply on Friday when debt rating agencies lowered their outlooks on the amusement park operator after it said attendance and revenues had fallen. (para 2).
BACKGROUND
The Six Flags “History” website (2011) states throngs flocked to Six Flags over Texas when the park opened in 1961. Six themed sections, modeled after the culture of the six countries whose flags flew over Texas during the state’s colorful history, created a spectacular and magical setting for guests – and provided the park’s name. The inventive theming afforded guests a chance to
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It was stated in SEC filings that Gates had become increasingly dissatisfied with the financial performance of Six Flags over the past five years. He expressed intent to discuss with the Six Flag’s board the company’s strategic decision making and recent financial and operating performance. (p. 32-4).
By 2006, after eight straight years of showing a loss, the debt from their spending spree on acquisitions was becoming too much to handle, and Six Flags was not bringing in the revenue to meet loan payments and cover expenses. Six Flags was forced to look at reducing assets in the form of selling selected parks to competitors and using the funds received to pay down part of the $2.1 billion debt to $1.6 billion. Under speculation of the asset liquidations, credit-default swaps began showing a positive trend. “You’re seeing an anticipation of an asset sale from Six Flags and that the asset sale will be announced sooner than later,” said Leslie Finerman, a credit analyst with New York-based hedge fund BlueMountain Capital Management, The reaction in the credit-default swap market “is a little overdone,” she said. “The company still has a lot of problems and a lot of wood to chop.” (Harrington & Fineman, 2006, para 12). Finerman’s point proved accurate, as the company continued to lose money. According to the President of Economic Research Associates (ERA) in the TEA/ERA Amusement Park Attendance Report (2007) John Robinett
As one can see in Exhibit 1 in (1), revenues under CEO Eisner had risen from $1,656 billion (1984) to astonishing $25,402 billion. Also, shareholder return increased dramatically. Disney’s stock value relative to the S&P500 (represent the overall performance of the stock market) went up from “1” ($100 million/$100 million) in 1984 to around “2,649” ($3,226 million/$1,218 million) in 2000. Thus, Disney under Eisner generated an amazing “26%” annual total return to shareholders (2).
The profitability of the theme park industry on the Gold Coast can also be impacted by the bargaining power of buyers (Hubbard, Rice & Beamish 2008; Porter 1980). One factor where the bargaining power of buyers is low is the industry concentration relative to buyer concentration. The theme park industry on the Gold Coast is quite large with seven theme parks located within the region; however these seven parks are owned by only two companies; Macquarie Leisure Trust Group and Village Roadshow (Roller-Coaster 2008B, Online). Therefore due to there only being two companies within the region, the amount of competition between the parks isn’t as fierce as it would be if each park had a different owner. For this reason the buyer doesn’t have as much power against each park
Cedar Fair has amusement parks in 9 states and also in Toronto, Canada. It owns 11 parks including Kings Island. It also owns two water parks. It’s headquarters are in Sandusky, Ohio and they have an amusement park called Cedar Point there. Matthew Ouimet is the President and CEO of the company. Earlier in his life, he served at Disneyland and has plenty of amusement park experience. The company Six Flags owns Six Flags Great America. Their headquarters are in Grand Prairie, Texas. The founder of Six Flags, Angus Wynne, opened the first park of their company in 1962 in Texas. They own 13 Amusement park and is the second largest theme park company in the US following
A. Introduction Founded in Texas, Six Flags is the world’s largest regional theme park (by the quantity of properties it owns) that provides world class, thrilling entertainment for families, teens, and young adults. Since 1961, when Angus G. Wynne started the chain,
The trend for the current ratio at Disney shows that the assets and liability amounts have increased, but due to ratio of the increase in liability being higher than the increase in assets the overall ratio has worsened. A 0.22 decrease in a ratio is a significant decrease within one year. This shows that Disney made some investments that did not have the desired return they were expecting.
Amusement parks are in the umbrella of the hospitality industry. One of its goals is to provide entertainment for all guests. It has been that way since the beginning and has been advancing ever since. If anyone had to say it the best, it will have to be the father of the amusement parks, Walt Disney. “Here you leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow and fantasy” (GoodReads). He understood that how important amusement parks are, how keeping the original charm that the guest grew to love and advancing that park to make the guests continue to enjoy the park for years to come. Understanding the past, present and future of the amusement park will show how these parks have lasted for years and years.
Today, Six Flags, Inc. is the world’s largest regional theme park company and owns and operates 18 theme, water and zoological parks in North
Everyone young or old recognizes the name Disney when mentioned. The theme park and vacation spots around the globe are famous for their attractions and tranquility; however, the customers of Disney do not know or care about the financial side of the financial giant. The 10K report is available to individuals wishing to view the document, however only students, stockholders and a few interested individuals actually view the financial report. In this paper team C will view the document, state conclusion perceived from this information and
During holiday vacations, families enjoy traveling to theme parks at a low cost. People usually pick their destination depending on many factors including price, friendly environment, events, rides, and food. If the family does not like a certain thing about the theme park, they will choose something else. Six Flags has been one the most famous theme parks that family and friends attend because it meet everyone’s expectations.
Six flags had the highest net income, return on sales, current ratio, and stockholders equity. In addition, Six Flags has the lowest debt-to equity ratio of the three companies. This shows that the company is thinking more so in the long term by balancing their debt and profit. The issue with Six Flags is that it is not driven to help their stockholders. Therefore, from an investment standpoint this is the safest, but most neutral in terms of making a profit.
Six flags is an animal theme park located in Vallejo California, it’s like halfway between San Francisco and Sacramento, and it was opened in 1968. Some exhibits are the Dolphin Discovery, Tiger Island, Penguin passage and many more. Some rides are the Medusa, Superman: Ultimate Flight, Roar, Vertical Velocity, Kong, Road runner express, Greased Lightnin, Cobra, Sky screamer, and Pandemonium.
It would be true to say that the Walt Disney Company receives large amounts of its money from the resort and theme park subsidiaries. With the effects of the great recession Walt Disney Company stated that its second-quarter net income from 2009 fell 46 percent, hauled down by failing movie releases and the impact of the recession on its theme parks. With attendance levels at similar levels from prior years it was due to the fact that fewer guests had excess spending cash to use, and also reduced the amount of income from merchandising. As a way to fight the recession ticket prices steadily increased after the recession and due to the inflation of ticket prices less and less people were attending parks causing the Walt Disney Company as a whole to loss great amounts of profits. (Adam Kasi, Jan 29, 2016 freepestelanalysis.com)
Since the target customers of Six Flags are totally different from Disneyland, its four segmentations are also different. First, Six Flags focuses on the geographic segmentation. Although the park is associated with the city of Santa Clarita, it is located outside the city limits. This location targets customers who want to escape from the noise of the city and their own busy life. Especially, Six Flags targets its local customers and does not intend to advertise internationally. Another geographic factor is climate. While Disneyland opens everyday, Six Flags only opens in spring, summer, and on weekends during off – seasons. Second, Six Flags uses demographic segmentation to determine its potential customers. In contrast to Disneyland, Six
Although there primary attitude is to get bigger, they feel as if they need to get smaller in some areas, such as their lowest revenue making venues. This strategy is known as Divestiture. Six Flags has been divesting areas resulting in low or negative revenue. One example is the recent discontinuation of their Louisville and New Orleans
Yes, because 4 biggest players which are The Walt Disney Company,Time Warner’s Six Flags Corporation, Paramount, Anheuser Busch and Cedar Fair have together more than 80% of market share.