"
Besides investment groups, Niles said other existing theme park chains would also be viable candidates for the Paramount buyout. While some theme park analysts have pegged amusement moguls Disney or Universal Studios to jump in on the Paramount bid, Niles said that type of acquisition is highly unlikely.
"Neither Disney or Universal have ever bought someone else's theme park so you have got history working against you there," he said.
While Disney might not jump on the opportunity, Niles said he expects Ohio-based Cedar Fair L.P., who already owns and operates eight amusement parks in the United States, to take a serious look at the Paramount Parks offer.
"If you look at the geography, [Paramount Parks] would match up well with the Cedar Fair parks," he said. "The question is do they have enough money to buy the whole thing or might they try to pick off a park or two in a partnership with somebody else who might join with them in a takeover?"
CBS would not comment regarding if the company would break up the Paramount chain and sell each park individually.
"There are so few potential buyers here I think it is just more likely from a fiscal stand point to just sell them off as one whole thing," Niles said. "Also, unless [the buyer] goes through and rebrands each attraction that already has Paramount or Nickelodeon branding on it all ready, they are going to have to deal with some kind of secondary deal on the licensing as well."
The worst case scenario
According to a company press release, CBS Corp. said it plans to keep all of the parks operational during the sale but plans to have the parks sold off by the second quarter of 2006.
What happens then?
Speaking in the hypothetical world, Niles said if someone does go ahead and buy the whole chain, that doesn't necessarily mean that they will keep all of the parks open.
"It is entirely possible that someone may decide to buy the whole thing and then close off one or more of the properties, selling them for real estate value or to some other smaller theme park operator somewhere," he said.
If the buy-it-and-close-some option was exercised, Niles predicted the first park to go would probably be Paramount's Great America park in Santa Clara, Calif.
"It hasn't been developed as much as the other properties have been," he said. "Obviously the land in the San Francisco bay area is about as expensive as you can get in the country and a lot of developers would pay a lot of money to come in on that land.""
Source: <a href='http://www.richmond.com/business/output.aspx?Article_ID=4112406&Vertical_ID=127&tier=1&position=1' target='_blank'>http://www.richmond.com/business/output.as...er=1&position=1</a>
They even think Cedar Fair could buy us. They also make it very clear that the Paramount Parks could be sold by park or worst shuttered. I like the idea of Cedar Fair buying us because they aren't a TV/Moive company, we need someone that has been in the theme park industry. I guess it is wait and see.
