Anheuser-Busch InBev announced today that they’re selling their ten theme parks to the Blackstone Group for $2.7 billion, including $2.3 billion in cash. Essentially Blackstone will get ABI’s “wholly owned subsidiary, Busch Entertainment Corporation (BEC), the second largest entertainment park operator in the United States with approximately 25 million annual visitors. BEC operates 10 entertainment parks throughout the United States including three SeaWorld parks in Orlando, Florida, San Antonio, Texas, and San Diego, California, two Busch Gardens parks in Tampa, Florida and Williamsburg, Virginia, and other family entertainment attractions in Orlando, Florida, Tampa, Florida, Williamsburg, Virginia, and Langhorne, Pennsylvania.”
Blackstone is a private equity firm that currently owns Universal Studios Orlando and Madame Tussauds wax museums, so this is a business model they’re already familiar with. Obviously, this will help InBev pay down the $52 billion they paid for Anheuser-Busch last year and that’s the underlying reason for the sale.
Unfortunately this means that the beer pavilions are now certainly gone for good. 🙁