Jump to content
  TPR Home | Parks | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | Instagram 

Six Flags [FUN] Corporate Discussion Thread

p. 91: Six Flags and Cedar Fair to enter "merger of equals" agreement, company will still be called "Six Flags"

Recommended Posts

Thanks for the merge, I did search and didn't see any discussion about Shapiro post-Six Flags career anywhere.

 

In my searching, here, I did listen to the interview that this site did with him when he first took over. Do you guys think he'd be receptive to doing a followup conversation?

 

I don't know why I find it so fascinating, but it was really interesting to watch him come in with such a cocky attitude...only to ultimately be removed.

 

Interesting about the possible lawsuit, thanks for that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hg-3PXbd1BhlcupMKsnl95CWq0DgD9GFN5B00

 

Six Flags Entertainment Corp., the theme park operator that emerged from bankruptcy protection last month, said Monday that three park executives are leaving the company as part of recent layoffs that the company estimates will save it $16 million a year.

 

The company did not disclose how many jobs were affected in the June 16 reductions, but said the move mainly targeted its New York City and Dallas corporate offices. Six Flags also is moving its CEO to the company's Dallas corporate headquarters. The estimated savings excludes severance and other costs, Six Flags said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

 

"The effect of these reductions should bring the company's general and administrative costs more in line, on a percentage of revenue basis, with other companies in the regional theme park industry," the company said in the filing.

 

Leaving the company are Michael Antinoro, executive vice president of entertainment and marketing, Andrew Schleimer, executive vice president of strategic development and in-park services, and Mark Quenzel, executive vice president of park strategy and management.

 

The three executives had nearly three years left on their contracts and stand to receive their base salaries throughout that term. Antinoro receives $400,000 a year in salary while Quenzel and Schleimer each are paid $500,000 annually.

 

Their employment agreements also call for them to receive their target bonus for the past year, which totals $500,000 a year for Antinoro and Quenzel and $400,000 for Schleimer. The three also will receive severance and 12 months of health care and life insurance.

 

The company, which runs 19 theme parks in North America, filed for bankruptcy protection in June 2009, burdened by high levels of debt and declining park attendance. Its restructuring plan reduced its debt and redeemable preferred stock to about $1 billion from about $2.7 billion.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I sure hope after all these little moves and changes that they have been making, that they still have plans for making the parks better. Seemed like Great Adventure got all the attention because the main office was in New York. So with Over Texas be getting the attention because they are the first SF park and the main office is close to there? I was so hoping the office would be moved to Washington DC. That way SFA could get at least some attention. Of course I'm just kidding. SFOT was the first SF park, so it makes sense for them to move it there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

13th Aug : SixFlags press release viz new Chairman, President and CEO (thats all the same guy though!)

 

http://investors.sixflags.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=61629&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1459818

 

James Reid-Anderson Named Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Six Flags Entertainment Corporation

 

DALLAS, Aug 13, 2010 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Six Flags Entertainment Corporation (NYSE: SIX), the world's largest regional theme park operator, today announced that James Reid-Anderson has been named the Company's Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately.

 

Mr. Reid-Anderson, 51, previously served as Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Dade Behring Holdings. Dade Behring emerged from Chapter 11 in September 2002 and under Reid-Anderson's guidance, Dade Behring established itself as a leader in customer excellence, innovation and shareholder value creation. In 2007, Dade Behring was sold to Siemens AG and following the completion of the transaction, Reid-Anderson served as CEO of the Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics Division, and then was promoted to CEO of the Siemens Healthcare Sector and appointed a member of the Siemens Managing Board.

 

"Jim is an exceptional CEO, and he brings to Six Flags an outstanding track record of shareholder value creation," said Usman Nabi, Executive Chairman of the Board of Six Flags and Senior Partner at H Partners. "As past investors in Dade Behring, we understand the value Jim delivers to shareholders, and the Board is confident that he will repeat this success at Six Flags."

 

Mr. Nabi continued, "I'd like to acknowledge the tremendous work of Al Weber, who has served as Interim CEO over the last three months. Under Al's leadership, we've streamlined our operations and re-focused our organization on our core theme park business. Al's deep industry experience will complement Jim's capabilities."

 

Mr. Nabi will continue to serve as a Director and a member of the Executive Committee of Six Flags while Mr. Weber will transition to the role of Chief Operating Officer.

 

"I am very excited to be joining Six Flags' dedicated group of employees and to build upon the momentum already underway at the Company," said Reid-Anderson. "With its strong portfolio of theme parks and improved capital structure, the Company is very well positioned for the long term. I look forward to enhancing the experience for our guests and continuing to build value for our stakeholders."

 

Prior to joining Dade Behring, Reid-Anderson held various financial and operational positions at Wilson Sporting Goods, PepsiCo, and Grand Metropolitan PLC, and currently serves as a Director on the Boards of Brightpoint, Inc. and Stericycle, Inc. He is a fellow of the UK Association of Chartered Accountants and received an Honors Degree in Commerce from the University of Birmingham, UK.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Is it just me that gets scared when I see phrases like "outstanding track record of shareholder value creation" in press releases like this? It doesn't sound good for visitors IMHO.

 

It said Weber will become the COO so hopefully he will manage the theme park side and Anderson can handle the business side.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Is it just me that gets scared when I see phrases like "outstanding track record of shareholder value creation" in press releases like this? It doesn't sound good for visitors IMHO.

 

Yeah,we heard all these same things about Snyder & Shapiro & look how that ended up.

 

I was hoping they'd keep Webber as he at least has some experience within the themepark industry while this new CEO,like Shapiro has no firsthand experience.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

August 16th Conference Call notes

 

And Questions and Answers from the Call

 

Sorry, I can not post the entire transcript so you'll have to click on the links.

 

Copyright policy: All transcripts on this site are the copyright of Seeking Alpha. However, we view them as an important resource for bloggers and journalists, and are excited to contribute to the democratization of financial information on the Internet. (Until now investors have had to pay thousands of dollars in subscription fees for transcripts.) So our reproduction policy is as follows: You may quote up to 400 words of any transcript on the condition that you attribute the transcript to Seeking Alpha and either link to the original transcript or to http://www.SeekingAlpha.com. All other use is prohibited.

Edited by larrygator
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

I'm sure others have followed the SF bankruptcy/restructuring/firing/hiring saga. I've seen these issues frequently discussed in park specific threads, but felt, given the recent events, that it deserved its own thread.

 

To an uniformed outsider (me), it appears that Six Flags is going back to it's pre-shapiro-redzone era. The last management regime believed in taking these regional parks and adding theming, branding and intellectual property (+Terminator, -Ad Wraps on Coasters). The current management team appears to be in dissaray and is having trouble with such mundane things as fact checking press releases (SFOG I'm looking at you). Yes the new team hasn't had a huge amount of time to implement any significant changes, but the changes I've seen so far have not been particularly postive.

 

So here is a thread to discuss this more intelligently than I've started to. Thoughts?

 

 

Chris "seriously did a search for an existing post this time" Connolly

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Their new CEO (Jim-Reid Anderson) has appointed a new CFO and General Counsel. Press release:

 

Six Flags Entertainment Corporation Announces John Duffey to Join Company as Chief Financial Officer and Lance Balk to Serve as General Counsel

 

DALLAS, Sept. 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Six Flags Entertainment Corporation (NYSE: SIX), the world's largest regional theme park operator, today announced that John M. Duffey has been named Chief Financial Officer of Six Flags and Lance C. Balk has been named General Counsel of Six Flags. Both appointments are effective immediately.

 

"I have previously worked with both John and Lance and I know that they will be outstanding additions to the Six Flags team," said Jim Reid-Anderson, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Six Flags. "Both John and Lance have proven expertise in helping companies achieve their full potential following a successful financial restructuring. I am very much looking forward to collaborating with them to enhance the theme park experience for our guests and to continue improving the Company's financial and operational performance."

 

Jeffrey Speed, former Chief Financial Officer of Six Flags, is leaving the Company to pursue other opportunities. Also, as previously announced, James Coughlin, the Company's former General Counsel, entered into a consulting agreement with the Company effective July 28, 2010.

 

John M. Duffey

 

Mr. Duffey previously served as Executive Vice President and Chief Integration Officer of Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics, and was responsible for leading the integration of Siemens Medical Solutions Diagnostics and Dade Behring. Prior to Dade Behring's acquisition by Siemens AG, Mr. Duffey served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Dade Behring Inc., where he negotiated and led the company through a debt restructuring and entry into the public equity market. He was instrumental in realigning the company's cost structure, leading to significantly improved profitability, cash flow and debt profile overall. Mr. Duffey holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Accounting from Michigan State University.

 

Lance C. Balk

 

Mr. Balk previously served as Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics. Prior to Dade Behring's acquisition by Siemens AG, he served in the same capacity at Dade Behring. In these roles Mr. Balk was responsible for global legal matters. Before joining Dade Behring, Mr. Balk was a partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP, where he co-founded the firm's New York corporate and securities practices. Mr. Balk holds a JD and an MBA from the University of Chicago, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy from Northwestern University.

 

About Six Flags

 

Six Flags Entertainment Corporation is a publicly traded corporation headquartered in Dallas, Texas with 19 parks across the United States, Mexico and Canada. Six Flags Over Texas, the company's flagship location, was founded in 1961 and will mark its 50th anniversary season in 2011.

 

SOURCE Six Flags Entertainment Corporation

 

Sounds like he wanted guys he had already worked with in his company. Nothing really shocking here, but I thought it was worth posting.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

From the Top....

 

Jim Reid-Anderson -- Current CEO of SIX---Is known in the corporate world as a business turn around artist. Subtracting his six month tenure at Apollo (a buy-out company with holdings in theme parks like Universal and Legoland and who also recently attempted to buy Cedar Fair) his main experience is with large companies that sell directly to other businesses. Business to Business corps flourish with tight fisted CEO's. If we've learned one thing about theme park companies, they need a big dreamer with business accumine to be a success. His recent move of hiring former Siemens execs (his former company) is disconcerting.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

http://www.learningmarkets.com/News-Feed/2010092047388/six-flags-entertainment-corp-attracting-bullish-investors-six-ccl-rcl.html

 

Six Flags Entertainment Corp. (SIX) [Chart - Analysis - News] established a new 52-week high yesterday at $42.99. Clearly investors are enthusiastic about the firm's prospects. The rally was accompanied by higher than average volume, which adds to the momentum behind yesterday's move.

 

The question is, can SIX continue moving higher? The stock has gained 27.62% during the past month, has a price-to-book value of 1.5 and a PEG ratio of 0.

 

Studies have shown that investors who buy stocks after hitting yearly highs during a bull market achieve higher average returns that the broad market indexes. This is a great example of the trader adage that "the trend is your friend." However, these historical results are based on large averages---and some bullish momentum in the market. It is much more difficult to say whether SIX, as a single stock, will continue to hit new highs. But for the time being, things look promising.

 

SIX competes in the General Entertainment industry with Carnival Corporation (CCL) [Chart - Analysis - News]---the largest firm in the industry group---and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (RCL) [Chart - Analysis - News], who have returned 8.72% and 10.01% during the past month, respectively. SIX is likely to be sensitive to its competitors so future weakness in the General Entertainment industry could be an early warning sign that things might be turning around.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

http://www.sacbee.com/2010/09/24/3053341/six-flags-receives-41-million.html

 

Six Flags Entertainment Corporation (NYSE: SIX), the world's largest regional theme park company, today announced that it has received a $41 million cash distribution with respect to its equity investment in dick clark productions. The company continues to retain its existing equity ownership position in dick clark productions.

 

About Six Flags: Six Flags Entertainment Corporation is a publicly traded corporation headquartered in Dallas, Texas with 19 parks across the United States, Mexico and Canada. Six Flags Over Texas, the company's flagship location, was founded in 1961 and will mark its 50th anniversary season in 2011.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use https://themeparkreview.com/forum/topic/116-terms-of-service-please-read/