Paramount Parks
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Paramount Parks is an operator of theme parks and attractions, which annually attract about 13 million patrons. The company currently owns and operates five theme parks in North America and manages the Bonfante Gardens theme park in Gilroy, California. From late 2001 to late 2004, Paramount Parks also managed Terra Mitica, an amusement park in Benidorm, Valencia, Spain.
Viacom acquired the parks chain as part of its acquisition of Paramount Pictures in 1994. Paramount Communications, previously known as Gulf and Western, in turn had acquired the parks from Nelson Schwab and his management group. Schwab and his KECO acquired the group in a management-led LBO from the Taft Broadcasting Company, which had built Kings Island in Cincinnati using cast off rides from Cincinnati's Coney Island [link] and to this day there is a small area in the Cincinnati park called "Coney Island" (Named "Coney Mall" in later years) still featuring some of those original rides. The parks were part of Viacom's Blockbuster Entertainment division until 2002 when they were moved back to Paramount Pictures. After another Viacom corporate shuffle in 2004 the parks became part of Viacom Recreation, a division of Nickelodeon and MTV Networks. In early 2006, as Viacom went through a corporate split (creating a new version of Viacom and renaming the original company CBS Corporation), Paramount Parks was assigned to CBS Corporation.
On January 27, 2006 the CBS Corporation announced its intent to sell Paramount Parks due to the fact that it didn't fit well within the company's core business (producing and distributing television content). A number of groups expressed interest in purchasing the company, several placed bids, and on May 22, 2006 it was announced that regional theme park operator Cedar Fair L.P. had outbid competitors and intended to purchase all five parks in the Paramount chain, including Star Trek: The Experience and the management agreement of Bonfante Gardens.
On June 30, 2006, Cedar Fair L.P. announced that it has completed its acquistion of Paramount Parks from CBS Corporation in a cash transaction valued at $1.24 billion. Shortly following the transfer of ownership, Cedar Fair began the process of integrating the two companies by eliminating the Paramount Parks corporate office in Charlotte and transferring all decision-making to Cedar Fair's offices in Sandusky, Ohio.
Each of the individual Paramount parks maintained their own individual names and identities until 1994, when they were each granted the "Paramount's" prefix (Paramount's Kings Island, Paramount's Great America, etc). Shortly after being selected as the new owner of the parks, Cedar Fair also announced its intent to eliminate the "Paramount's" prefix from each park.
List of parks
United States
- Paramount's Kings Island located in Mason, Ohio (24 miles North of Cincinnati, Ohio)
- Paramount's Kings Dominion located in Doswell, Virginia (20 miles North of Richmond, Virginia)
- Paramount's Carowinds located in Charlotte, North Carolina (Straddles the North Carolina/South Carolina Line)
- Paramount's Great America located in Santa Clara, California
- located in Las Vegas, Nevada
- Bonfante Gardens located in Gilroy, California (Bonfante Gardens is a theme-park/botanical garden; Paramount Parks operates the park)
Canada
- Paramount Canada's Wonderland located in Vaughan, Ontario, near Toronto
Official web sites
- [Cedar Fair web site]
- [Paramount Parks]
- [Paramount's Kings Island]
- [Paramount's Kings Dominion]
- [Paramount's Carowinds]
- [Paramount's Great America]
- [Star Trek The Experience]
- [Bonfante Gardens]
- [Paramount's Canada's Wonderland]
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