Six Flags Merges With Cedar Fair, a Rival Amusement Park

Six Flags, an amusement park corporation, is merging with its rival Cedar Fair in an $8 billion deal, the two companies announced on Thursday.

Together, they will operate 27 amusement parks, 15 water parks and nine resort properties in North America. Combining the companies would generate more than $3 billion in revenue, the companies projected in a statement.

“The combination of Six Flags and Cedar Fair will redefine our guests’ amusement park experience as we combine the best of both companies,” said Selim Bassoul, the president and chief executive of Six Flags.

Cedar Fair operates popular parks such as Carowinds in Charlotte, N.C.; Kings Dominion in Doswell, Va.; and Canada’s Wonderland in Ontario. Its parks had more than 12 million visitors in the third quarter of this year, and Six Flags had more than nine million.

The deal comes after years of financial challenges for Six Flags. The company saw its share value plunge in 2020 after it said it had defaulted on its payments for planned projects in China. Amid the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, those plans were scrapped in February 2020.

The company’s stock ended Thursday up more than 6 percent.