NBCUniversal and The Blackstone Group have announced that they have entered into an agreement whereby NBCUniversal will purchase Blackstone's 50% interest in Universal Orlando, giving NBCUnviersal and its affiliates a complete stake in Universal Studios Florida, Universal Islands of Adventure and Universal CityWalk."The acquisition consolidates our ownership and confirms our long-term commitment to Universal Orlando and the theme park business." Steve Burke said, "Universal Orlando has a superb management team and exciting growth opportunities."
"We are proud of the extraordinary growth and success that Universal Orlando experienced during our eleven years of ownership," said Michael Chae, Senior Managing Director of Blackstone. "Throughout this period we have been committed to investing for long-term growth in partnership with the Company's management and NBCUniversal, and we are gratified with the results of this strategy."
The price for Blackstone's 50% stake in Universal Orlando? $1.025 billion. For perspective, Disney's spending $1.1 billion on its revamp of the California Adventure theme park.
Tweet
Edit: Thanks for the clarification Robert.
The perks for the hotel guests are all part of the licensing/lease deal between Universal and Loews, I've been told. Universal selected Loews to develop and run those hotels as Universal's not in the hotel business. But UO works with Loews in the hotels' promotion and integration with the rest of the resort. So they're not exactly like some random hotel that just happens to be in the area.
As for what Blackstone will do now, well, it's cashed out and that money goes into the till for its managers to reinvest in other acquisitions, in companies that it currently holds, or in payments to investors. Remember, Blackstone owns a ton of other stuff, not just Merlin and SeaWorld (which are operated independently of each other, BTW.)
This article has been archived and is no longer accepting comments.
