No, that's not the case at all. Merging companies are required to provide a lot of documentation to the FTC, and a withdraw-and-refile is commonly done to extend the deadline to provide those documents, without the risk of it being blocked on some compliance technicality.
News Cedar Fair Merges with Six Flags
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No, that's not the case at all. Merging companies are required to provide a lot of documentation to the FTC, and a withdraw-and-refile is commonly done to extend the deadline to provide those documents, without the risk of it being blocked on some compliance technicality.
SEC issued a notice requesting more information from the two companies. It's worth noting that the Biden Administration has been one of the toughest Administration in recent history on corporate mergers
Worth noting that everything coming out of Cedar Fair/Six Flags, as well as many other industry sources, has expressed confidence about the merger going through with no more than minor delaysSEC issued a notice requesting more information from the two companies. It's worth noting that the Biden Administration has been one of the toughest Administration in recent history on corporate mergers
The Six Flags stockholder vote is scheduled for March 12, 2024.
https://otp.tools.investis.com/generic/sec/sec-show.aspx?ipage=17224713&Cik=0000701374&Type=PDF
https://otp.tools.investis.com/generic/sec/sec-show.aspx?ipage=17224713&Cik=0000701374&Type=PDF
I just want to point out that letter directly says the merger has NOT yet been approved yet by the SEC. I feel it's important to point that out since a prominent KD poster has been sharing a questionable sourced news report claiming the merger was approved.
Jetblue and Spirit felt the same.
Those are airlines, these are theme parks. two completely different industries
But it's not just airlines that the Biden Administration has been targeting. It's big companies across the board and they just toughened the rules to review mergers on top of that.
Mergers lose their shine as Biden racks up antitrust wins
A judge's decision to block a JetBlue- Spirit union offered new momentum to an antitrust crackdown in Washington. It could force executives to think twice about new deals in 2024.
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JetBlue and Spirit are both real small airlines that wanted to combine into a bigger one. One reason it may have been blocked as there are too few airlines (at least US ones) currently operating and having one less is one less competitor to the big ones. Less competition is generally not good for the consumer. Some of these recent requests are not full blocks but pauses because of requests for more info so the DOJ and FTC can evaluate the merger and make sure it complies with existing laws. In about 50 years if all of these mergers are allowed to continue then Costco will be the dominate store like in the cult movie Idiocracy.
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Right, but theme parks are a part of the much larger entertainment and experience umbrella, while airlines have no competition. If you want a vacation or fun day trip, there’s a lot of options out there. If you want to travel across the country quickly, you have one option
I was going to post the exact opposite. In most local areas, you're lucky if you have one good amusement park, many have none. Competition is only present if you consider travel or a couple unusual regions, mainly Florida where there are no CF/SF parks.
I think you're missing the point in that while you're right in terms of theme parks only, these businesses are competing with any other form of entertainment people would be willing to pay for.
Not everyone has the same passion for them we do, and perhaps would be just as willing to go do something else... Which, in most areas, I'm assuming is possible.
However, flying is perhaps the most efficient way to travel long distances in short amounts of time. We don't have an equivalent of a bullet train system, and driving your own car is nowhere near as fast to be considered reasonable competition (though when price is a larger concern than time, it certainly is an option many choose).
The closest comparison I can think of recently is Bowlero buying up a lot of bowling alleys and creating local monopolies with prices to go along with that. This has happened with really no regulatory pushback, as similarly to theme parks, bowling alleys are part of the bigger recreation market.
Maybe you could see a state AG pushback where the state could be a big lower, but federal reaction seems less likely.
One of CF's largest shareholder has concerns about the merger and is planning to try and fight it.
The Cedar Fair spokesperson answered 2 out of 13 questions. This could get spicy!One of CF's largest shareholder has concerns about the merger and is planning to try and fight it.
Huge props to the Sandusky Register for printing each of the questions alongside the lack of a response to each. 10/10.
If I remember correctly, vocal opposition from one of CF’s large shareholders is also one of the things that killed the previous attempts at buyouts by SF and SEAS.
Notably, the shareholder doesn’t seem to just be expressing financial concerns about the merger, but also seems to care about its impacts on the parks themselves:
Notably, the shareholder doesn’t seem to just be expressing financial concerns about the merger, but also seems to care about its impacts on the parks themselves:
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