Six Flags to sell Six Parks

[Cyclonic]

$500 million eh? If thats all, you might as well hold on to the park. I guess we wil have to wait and see what Shapiro does.

I'd like to know where you get that thinking.  $500 millon is a pretty good chunk of change, and would go along way to paying off the company's debt.

[Dubya91]

Note that the stock is down for the 4th Bussiness Day in a row, MM ain't going anywhere....

[GADVwow]

If the stock keeps going down, those bank covenants become more and more difficult to meet.  If the banks don't agree to extend financing, the bankruptcy word then starts to become a distinct possibility.  If that happens, it will be a trustee in bankruptcy, and not Six Flags, that decides what happens to any and all of the parks.  And the trustee's ONLY goal will be to raise the most money possible to pay the creditors.

Stay tuned...time may very well be running very short.

Not only may MM be going somewhere, it may be doing it VERY soon.

[chilled182]

I was told by my aunt who lives all but 15 minutes from valencia that the land the park sits on is worth more than the actual park itself.  Thats prime real estate folks.

so.. anyone want a roller coaster?  I have a feeling thats the way this thing is going to end up.

[Dubya91]

X would fit nicely behind the North Star Arena

[PcMan]

I got this on Saturday and Forgot to post it
THe owner knows when to buy he just should have waited a few more days

Snyder Expands Six Flags Holdings

By Chris Kirkham
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, June 24, 2006; Page D03

Washington Redskins owner Daniel M. Snyder bought an additional 500,000 shares of Six Flags Inc. Friday as the company's stock continued a sharp decline after news of poor attendance and a possible bank default.

Snyder's Red Zone LLC paid $5.92 per share, or about $3 million total, a steep discount for stock that traded at nearly $12 a share at the start of the year, when Snyder took control of the company and installed his management team.
   

Shares for the theme-park company fell 26 percent Friday, to $5.55, including a 19 percent drop in after-hours trading Thursday.

Snyder now owns 11.4 million shares of the company's stock, about 12 percent of the total, according to Securities and Exchange Commission records.

Snyder's purchase came after Six Flags chief executive Mark Shapiro said six theme parks could be sold, including Six Flags Magic Mountain in Los Angeles and parks outside Buffalo, Seattle, Denver, Houston and Concord, Calif. Six Flags America in Largo was not on the list.

Snyder gained control of Six Flags last fall and installed Shapiro, a former ESPN executive, as chief executive. Film producer Harvey Weinstein and former vice presidential candidate Jack Kemp were named to the board.

The company's share price soared after Snyder took over, but attendance has continued to dwindle at the parks. It is down 1.3 million customers this year, compared with 2005.

[WadeJ]

Shapiro just purchased 15,000 shares as well.  Unfortunately, WSJ has additional stories that require you to be a member.  Something still smells foul here.

[rjholla2003]

Oddest stock price I've ever seen.

Six Flags- $5.2695 as of 11:35 AM

[WadeJ]

Does anybody else think its odd that this news hit - the stock plumeted and Shapiro and Snyder go on a stock purchase buying spree?  This entire mess could be a bluff or it could be some sort of evil plan lol

[PcMan]

Normally as far as I know major shareholders(insiders) are reguired to file ahead of time when they will buy or sell.
Like they would have to say file now to sell in September etc. or I know it's at least when they are to sell shares.

I thinking of buying about 400 shares as I'm sure this will double again in less then a year.

[GADVwow]

The SEC has VERY strict rules about insider trading.

I smell nothing foul.

Odd timing?  Yes.  Foul?  Probably not.

[PcMan]

Here is some interesting news about the 6 SIx Flags insiders buying this past week.

http://urlci.com/ea5a47

Who's Buying Now?

Sometimes insiders are buying for all the right reasons. Who's buying now?

By Tim Beyers (TMF Mile High)
June 28, 2006

It's a new week, which means it's time to check the most interesting insider purchases. After reading through numerous filings using insider tracking tool Form 4 Oracle, here are my top five from the past seven days:


Time to plant a flag in your portfolio?
I've rarely seen more than three insiders buy shares at the same time, let alone six. But that's exactly what happened at Six Flags last week. Call it irony if you like, or maybe a cheap stunt (six for six!), but I think the amusement park operator has suddenly become an intriguing value.

Last Thursday, the shares were pummeled when management announced that Six Flags would be faced with higher operating expenses, which in turn would make it "extremely difficult" to meet prior guidance. Worse, management says the company may find itself out of compliance with its bank credit agreement, which Six Flags needs in order to implement a turnaround. Investors haven't returned, and the stock is down nearly 30% from when the news broke.

But as the shares began to hit bottom on Friday, management started buying. So did Washington Redskins owner Dan Synder. His Red Zone partnership snapped up 500,000 shares for $5.92 a stub.

Why the purchases? I think the clues lie in the statements of CEO Mark Shapiro in Thursday's press release. In explaining the higher operating expenses, Shapiro said that management was willing to risk guidance to fix operational problems. The bottom line, he said, is that management views its cash expenditures as a "long-term investment." That's Foolish, and it jibes with what fellow Fool Rick Munarriz saw on his recent tour of Six Flags' popular East Coast attractions.

I've learned from observing great investors like David Gardner that poor management rarely provides big returns. Conversely, excellent management often leads to market-crushing returns. Six Flags certainly looks ugly right now, but Shapiro strikes me as the right guy, in the right place, at the right time. As of Friday, he and his compadres have a few hundred thousand more reasons to succeed. Time to add this stock to my watch list.

[Dubya91]

^Very intresting to see he thinks the stock has hope, it does, but you wont see me anywhere near buying it after that freefall it took. I will wait till things stable out before I buy some of the company. IMO I think all these guys bought it for two reasons. A. They saw it was cheap and bought it up, also to get the stock out of the Freefall it was in B. They have faith in Shapiro to turn the stocks around and make all who bought them now money.

[GADVwow]

Most of the public waits to buy high and sells when stocks hit lows...

[chilled182]

What if he is trying to buy the entire company?

I dont know much about the whole stock thing.  I hate this stuff.