SeaWorld Orlando Is Merlin buying SeaWorld?

Are SeaWorld and Busch Gardens jointly owned now? I thought Busch Family sold Busch Gardens a year or two ago. Did they sell to Sea World?
 
Actually the brewery bought Seaworld late 80s. When then the brewery was bought by InBev (the Belgian brewery) they sold the zoos and themepark division of the company. So Seaworld and Busch Gardens have been part of the same company for almost 30 years.
 
DavidBrown said:
There is speculation that SeaLife and Legoland owner Merlin may be interested in buying Busch Gardens and SeaWorld. SeaWorld is circling the financial drain. The article mentions that the Orlando SeaWorld is attractive to new owners, but the California and Texas parks may not be - why this would be the case is unclear in the story.

Legoland's owner may want to buy some SeaWorld Entertainment parks
Click to expand...

Reading the attached article carefully, it appears that Merlin is interested only in the two Busch Gardens parks. I have read (link attached) that Merlin's corporate policy does not allow for the keeping of cetaceans, and given Merlin already has the Sea Life aquarium in Orlando, I'm not sure that the Orlando park would be a good fit (it it were indeed even possible).

This might be a good deal for both Busch Gardens and the Sea World parks - allowing Busch Gardens parks to distance themselves from any of the financial and PR problems of Sea World, and getting Sea World some much-needed capital and a renewed focus as it faces its continuing challenges. Of course, it may be that Sea World needs the less volatile income from its Busch Gardens park to allow it to weather the current rough times. Regardless, it will be interesting to see how this plays out.
 
This would only be a good move for SeaWorld Parks if they are all purchased by Merlin.The SeaWorld Parks would not do well on their own, as they really need that added income from the two very popular Busch Garden Parks.
The other curve ball is what about Sesame Place and the fact that they have also comitted to building a second Sesame Place somewhere? Does Merlin want that as well? or would SeaWorld keep Sesame Place as they have them in their parks? And if they do sell just the Busch Parks and possibly the accompanying water parks do they remove all of the Sesame Street themeing and rides?
A lot of questions that would need to be answered and details to hammer out that many people may not realize.
 
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