The story
Background
Cedar Fair
Cedar Fair, L.P was founded in 1983 after Cedar Point, an amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio, acquired Valleyfair in Shakopee, Minnesota, in 1978. The company's name was derived from both parks—"Cedar" from Cedar Point and "Fair" from Valleyfair. Cedar Fair became publicly traded on April 29, 1987. The company would increase its portfolio through acquisitions of amusement parks throughout the United States. Through its 1997 acquisition of Knott's Berry Farm, the company gained licensing rights to use Peanuts intellectual properties within its parks. In 2006, Cedar Fair acquired five amusement parks in the purchase of Paramount Parks from CBS Corporation for US$1.24 billion. Shortly after the acquisitions, the company would begin to do business as under the name Cedar Fair Entertainment Company.
Cedar Fair faced multiple failed acquisition attempts prior to the merger. Private equity company Apollo Global Management announced plans to take over Cedar Fair in late-2009 and make it into a private company. However, Cedar Fair's unitholders did not support the acquisition, which derailed the transaction in 2010. In 2019, Six Flags approached Cedar Fair with a cash-and-stock acquisition offer, which was quickly rejected. Almost three years later in 2022, SeaWorld Entertainment (now United Parks & Resorts) made an unsolicited all-cash bid to buy Cedar Fair for $3.4 billion; this offer was rejected two weeks later. In order to lower overall corporate debts, the company sold California's Great America in Santa Clara, California, on June 27, 2022, to real estate developer Prologis for $310 million. By the end of 2022, Cedar Fair reported it had around $2.2 billion in net debt.
Former Six Flags company
Six Flags Theme Parks, Inc. originated with the creation of The Great Southwest Corporation by Angus G. Wynne and other investors, who would go on to open the chain's original park, Six Flags Over Texas, in August 1961. After the Pennsylvania Railroad gained a controlling stake in the company's shares, a handful of new parks were constructed, and multiple independently-owned parks were purchased over the following two decades. Following the acquisition of Marriott Corporation's Great America theme park in Gurnee, Illinois, in 1984, Six Flags acquired the rights to feature Warner Bros.' Looney Tunes animated characters at its properties; Time Warner (now Warner Bros. Discovery) subsequently purchased much of the company and was its sole owner from 1993 to 1995.
Premier Parks
Premier Parks was an Oklahoma-based real estate firm and theme park chain. Founded as Tierco, the company purchased Frontier City in Oklahoma City in 1982 for $1.2 million with the intention of tearing it down. Although Frontier City, at the time of purchase, was run-down and struggling, an oil-bust that soured redevelopment prospects coupled with an enigmatic general manager changed the park's fortunes, and Tierco ultimately shifted its strategy to purchasing amusement parks. By 1998, now under the umbrella of Premier Parks, the company had purchased or acquired over 20 parks, including Wild World in Largo, Maryland, Marine World USA, Geauga Lake, Wyandot Lake, Darien Lake, Elitch Gardens, Riverside Park, Kentucky Kingdom, Waterworld USA waterparks in Sacramento and Concord, California, Great Escape and Splashwater Kingdom, and the Walibi family of parks in Belgium, The Netherlands, and France.
On April 1, 1998, Premier Parks acquired the original Six Flags Theme Parks for $1.86 billion. Premier began to apply the Six Flags name to several of its existing properties in North America and Europe, eventually fully assuming the brand name in 2000. Throughout the 2000s, Six Flags began to suffer from growing debt and organizational bloat, eventually resorting to selling off assets like its European parks and Worlds of Adventure in 2004. Some of the company's largest investors grew frustrated with Six Flags and demanded change; Daniel Snyder's Red Zone, LLC successfully gained control of Six Flags' board of directors in 2005 by means of a proxy battle.
New management continued to sell off various American amusement park locations throughout 2006–2007, although the cash flow continued to decrease, falling $120 million annually under Red Zone's board. Affected by the 2008 financial crisis and the Great Recession, Six Flags filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2009 but continued to operate the parks as normal. Six Flags re-emerged as Six Flags Entertainment Corp. on May 3, 2010, moving head offices from New York City to Grand Prairie, Texas and allowing lenders to control 92% of the company in exchange for cancelling $1.13 billion in debt.
Jim Reid-Anderson was instated as chairman, president and CEO on August 13, 2010. New initiatives were launched to build Six Flags theme parks in global markets; the previously cancelled Six Flags Dubai was revived in 2014 before being called off again in 2018. Mike Spanos succeeded Reid-Anderson in late 2019. Six Flags Zhejiang and Six Flags Chongqing both began construction in China before a declining real estate and the collapse of its local investment firm in 2020 forced both projects to be sold on to other developers. The COVID-19 pandemic also hindered Six Flags' operations during 2020, forcing many parks to remain closed for the year. Mike Spanos stepped down in 2021, allowing chairman Selim Bassoul to assume the role of CEO. Seeking reinvention, Bassoul announced a new strategy favoring guest experience over capital investments; this meant raising prices in order to lower daily park crowds, thus improving the park experience for higher-paying guests. The initiative and various comments made by Bassoul proved controversial with shareholders, and was abandoned in November 2022 after park attendance plummeted by 33%.
History
Announcement
Following initial contact by Cedar Fair in July 2023 and subsequent negotiations, longtime competitors Cedar Fair and Six Flags announced a merger on November 2, 2023. The announcement came at a time when amusement parks struggled to raise attendance after the COVID-19 pandemic, citing the need for financial stability, cost efficiency, and to compete with destination theme parks. Both companies anticipated US$120 million in cost synergies within two years following the merger's completion. Including debt, it would form an enterprise value of US$8 billion, creating a portfolio of 27 amusement parks, 15 water parks, with 9 resort properties, making the newly formed company the largest amusement park operator in North America.
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Described as a "merger of equals", Cedar Fair shareholders would become majority owners, owning a 51.2% stake in the new company, while Six Flags shareholders would own a 48.8% stake. The merger was executed as an all-stock transaction: each Cedar Fair share was exchanged for one share in the new company, while each Six Flags share was exchanged for 0.58 shares. It was structured through a newly formed holding company named CopperSteel HoldCo, Inc., which both companies would merge into. Upon completion, Cedar Fair and Six Flags would dissolve, and CopperSteel HoldCo, Inc. was to be renamed to Six Flags Entertainment Corporation, trading under Cedar Fair's ticker symbol, FUN, on the New York Stock Exchange.
Approval
The board of directors of both companies had approved the merger at the time of initial announcement. The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) launched an antitrust review process of the merger on January 22, 2024, and issued a second request for additional information from both companies. On January 25, 2024, the Mexican Federal Competition Commission approved the merger. Six Flags shareholders overwhelmingly voted to approve the merger on March 12, 2024, with approximately 80% of votes cast in favor. The DOJ gave its approval on June 26, 2024, allowing the companies to finalize the merger, which was completed on July 1, 2024.
Opposition
Immediately after the merger's announcement, activist investment firm Land & Buildings Investment Management, which held a 1% stake in Six Flags, opposed the merger, stating that the deal "does not maximize value for all shareholders."
Since the merger was structured so that Cedar Fair unitholders would hold a 51.2% majority, it did not require a vote by Cedar Fair unitholders. In December 2023, investment firm Neuberger Berman, which held a 3% stake in Cedar Fair, accused the companies of purposefully structuring the deal so that Cedar Fair unitholders were disenfranchised, asserting that the merger would not be approved if Cedar Fair unitholders were allowed to vote.
2024: Immediate post-merger integration
After the merger's completion on July 1, 2024, the president and CEO of Cedar Fair, Richard Zimmerman, became president and CEO of the new combined company. Selim Bassoul, the president and CEO of the former Six Flags company, became the executive chairman of the company's board of directors. The combined company's headquarters was relocated to Charlotte, North Carolina, five miles northeast of its Carowinds park, with significant administrative and financial operations based at Cedar Fair's former headquarters in Sandusky, Ohio. Cedar Fair had held significant administrative offices in Charlotte, North Carolina, prior to the merger. Six Flags clarified at the time of merger that the company did not anticipate making any major changes at the park-level and that all properties would retain their pre-merger names. Stocks for both Cedar Fair and the former Six Flags company ceased trading on the New York Stock Exchange, and the newly formed entity commenced trading on July 2, 2024 under the ticker symbol FUN.
In late-2024, Six Flags outlined plans for a portfolio optimization in the company, which may include closing or selling off some of its locations. The company filed plans with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on December 17, 2024, that it would acquire the remaining limited partnership units of Six Flags Over Georgia, Hurricane Harbor Atlanta, and Six Flags White Water by January 12, 2027. The transaction would cost US$332.6 million, and would increase Six Flags' ownership of the three parks from 31.5% to full ownership.
2025–present: Corporate restructuring and portfolio optimization
On February 10, 2025, Six Flags and Qiddiya Investment Company announced that it had signed a management services agreement to provide operational support and brand licensing to two theme parks in the Qiddiya City megaproject in Riyadh Province, Saudi Arabia. These parks would be the Six Flags Qiddiya City theme park and Aquarabia water park.
On May 1, 2025, the company announced it would permanently close the Six Flags America theme park and its accompanying water park, Hurricane Harbor Maryland, in Woodmore, Maryland. The company cited that the parks were "not a strategic fit with the company's long term plan," and that the property would be redeveloped. Hurricane Harbor Maryland closed on September 6, 2025, and Six Flags America closed on November 2, 2025. In late-May 2025, Six Flags announced plans to reduce 10% of its full-time employees, equating to approximately 500 employees. The layoffs included eliminating the park president role at all of its 27 amusement parks as the company moved to a regional operating structure, completing these layoffs by June.
On August 6, 2025, Six Flags announced that President and CEO Richard Zimmerman would step down by the end of the year. Later, on October 10, 2025, it was announced that Bassoul, executive chairman, would step down by the end of 2025, but would stay to consult for the upcoming Six Flags Qiddiya City. John Reilly, a former executive at Palace Entertainment, Parques Reunidos, and SeaWorld Entertainment, assumed the president and CEO position effective December 8, 2025, replacing Zimmerman. Marilyn Spiegel, who served as a board member since 2023 for both the former Six Flags company and current company, replaced Bassoul as a non-executive chair on January 1, 2026.
The company announced on January 5, 2026, that it did not intend to acquire its remaining stake in Six Flags Over Texas, citing "the contractual terms do not currently align with [its] capital allocation priorities."
On March 5, 2026, Six Flags announced that it would divest seven of its theme parks, selling the parks to EPR Properties for US$331 million. These parks include Valleyfair, Worlds of Fun, Michigan's Adventure, Schlitterbahn Galveston, Six Flags St. Louis, Six Flags Great Escape, and La Ronde. The sale of these parks follows the registration of the "Enchanted Parks" trademarks to the United States Patent and Trademark Office in early-January 2026; Enchanted Parks will partner with EPR to operate six of the parks, while La Ronde Operations will operate La Ronde. The sale of the United States parks was completed on April 6, 2026, while the sale of La Ronde was completed on May 14, 2026.
In March 2026, activist investor Jana Partners, which held an approximately 9% economic stake in Six Flags, sent a letter to the company’s board of directors calling for the exploration of a sale and the immediate replacement of board chair Marilyn Spiegel. The firm, led by managing partner Scott Ostfeld, cited an “alarming pattern of board dysfunction and disjointed decision-making”, while expressing support for newly appointed CEO John Reilly. Jana argued that engaging with a known buyer interest was in the best interest of shareholders. Richard Haddrill became the company’s executive chairman on March 25, 2026, with Spiegel becoming the lead independent director. After laying off 27 park presidents in 2025, the company reversed its decision in mid-April 2026, choosing to reinstate the role at 10 parks in "key markets."
On August 25, 2026, Six Flags announced it would relocate its headquarters from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Choctaw Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Choctaw Stadium was the headquarters for the former Six Flags company from 2020 up until the 2024 merger with the facilities continuing to be used as a corporate office following the merger. The relocation will be completed by March 2027. In addition to its headquarters in Arlington, Six Flags will continue to retain a corporate office at the former Cedar Fair headquarters in Sandusky, Ohio.
As of 2026, Six Flags operates 34 properties: 20 amusement parks and 14 separately-gated water parks, with nine on-site resorts in North America. Additionally, the company licenses and manages two parks within the Qiddiya City megaproject in Saudi Arabia.
From Wikipedia’s article on Six Flags, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.7