SeaWorld Entertainment says its $3.4 billion offer to buy the Cedar Fair chain of amusement parks has been declined.
In a brief statement released Tuesday, SeaWorld said:
In response to inquiries from various stakeholders, we confirm that our offer to acquire Cedar Fair was rejected. Unfortunately, we do not see a path to a transaction.
The rejection comes just two weeks after the surprise offer was first reported by Bloomberg. It was based on a cash bid of $60 per share — a threshold that Cedar Fair actually exceeded earlier Tuesday.
The $3.4 billion price came out to $10 per share lower than a 2019 takeover bid by Six Flags that was also rejected. While SeaWorld is the larger of the two companies in terms of employees and market capitalization, Cedar Fair parks did collectively have higher attendance than the SeaWorld chain.
The rejection of the deal comes just before Cedar Fair announces its fourth quarter 2021 earnings at 10 a.m. eastern time Wednesday.