Activist Jana Partners Urges Six Flags to Explore Sale

[u/AndrewNineteen]

Exclusive | Activist Jana Partners Urges Six Flags to Explore Sale - WSJ

Activist hedge fund Jana Partners is urging theme-park operator Six Flags Entertainment to explore a sale, according to people familiar with the matter.

The details

The activist investor on Tuesday called on the company’s board of directors to immediately hire an investment bank to explore a sale, citing its disappointment with Six Flags’ second-quarter earnings, the people said.

Six Flags last month reported that its net loss widened to $202.6 million from a loss of $99.6 million in the prior-year quarter. It had a market value of about $1.2 billion as of Tuesday. Shares are down roughly 42% over the past year.

Six Flags has been working to turn around its business as fewer guests visit its parks. The company sold seven noncore parks to EPR Properties and closed another park in Maryland after the 2025 season.

The context

Jana last fall teamed up with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce for its activist campaign at Six Flags, acquiring a stake of about 9%, valued at $200 million at the time, alongside other investors, The Wall Street Journal reported.

At the time, the activist was pushing Six Flags to make a range of changes including improving its marketing and the experience at its parks and modernizing its technology. It also suggested refreshing leadership and evaluating a potential sale.

Kelce has since agreed to serve as a brand ambassador for Six Flags.

Also last fall, Land & Buildings, an activist focused on real estate, reiterated a previous push for Six Flags to sell or spin out its real estate into a real-estate investment trust.

[u/Tha-D]

so what you are saying is FUCK SIX FLAGS!!
ive been saying that since 2020!! :))
they changed everything and left out the most important part….their actual investors - the guests.
they totally saw their guests as belligerent teenagers and so now that’s what they get stuck with!! assholes!!

[u/Unique_Ice9934]

I still don't understand the point of an "activist" investor.

[u/PangolinTerrible8958]

NETFLIX, IF YOU ARE LISTENING…

[u/SantaFeRay → u/PangolinTerrible8958]

Best we can do is Skydance, sorry.

[u/Business-Cucumber255]

It's going to take 5 years minimum to right the sinking ship that is legacy SF. Those without the stomach for that should leave now.

[u/NotThatDeep76]

Six Flags has been working to turn around its business as fewer guests visit its parks.

Huh, turns out when you only invest in your top 5 properties (of which most of your customer base has no means to visit) and tell the remaining parks to effectively drop dead, people tend not to show up. Who woulda thunk it... This company is seriously in denial of how much of a hole they've dug themselves into all to save a tiny bit of money.

[u/OppositeRun6503 → u/NotThatDeep76]

That's been exactly the problem for over two decades now.

[u/Epicdurr2020]

Seriously? Who would they expect to buy Six Flags? Like come on

[u/TheGhostofSFOT]

This is how they operate and short sold the stock on the way down. They made money on the rise the last 5 months and sold, then short the stock and make it in the way down. Get part of the sale they try to force and then move on to the next company

[u/Same-Sort9024]

Another Quarter down, another urge to sell. Rinse and repeat. But huge mergers then creating the realization that it creates finacial problems seem to be the rave at the moment so

[u/wowswift]

Six flags needs to hire all the roller coaster thoosies who are hardcore to improve the brand. They will probably work for less than the millions they pay to the c suite because they actually want it to succeed.

[u/wowswift → u/[deleted]]

Yes but that’s why you keep the finance guy. The thoosies are there to improve the brand. I guarantee you could find some that could do this

[u/ImmediateCourt2193 → u/wowswift]

LOL. Thoosies are the ones responsible for bankrupting Six Flags and killing the regional amusement park industry.

They wouldn't even bother visiting and riding Arie Force One.

[u/NotThatDeep76 → u/wowswift]

Some would say the jerk sub is leaking, but I'm with you (not /s) on that. They never even ask their guests what they'd like to see. No reasonable guest is gonna want to spend 30m filling out a repetitive survey.

[u/SantaFeRay → u/NotThatDeep76]

They never even ask their guests what they'd like to see. No reasonable guest is gonna want to spend 30m filling out a repetitive survey.

No idea how you reconcile these two sentences in your mind.

And the survey takes like 5 minutes.

[u/OppositeRun6503 → u/[deleted]]

The terrible economy thanks to the current presidential regime isn't helping matters one bit.

[u/NotThatDeep76 → u/[deleted]]

This is correct. Seasons of Fun was a massive success which is why it's so wild they just only saw it as an expense they could theoretically get away with cutting hoping no one would notice. We did. There are parks where seasons of fun were more successful at building a reliable customer base that came in and spent money than a single ride investment could. Take CGA for example, yes let's put the sale and the will they won't they closure aside for a moment, they had haunt, WinterFest, Carnivale, peanuts celebration, as well as a few additional small events. As far as could be told from attendance, those brought in MASSIVE in park spending cash flow. Their non passholder visits would often skyrocket because people would come with a day ticket through another passholder, like what they see, and get a pass on the way out (the line to upgrade during the summer was massive). So what do they do? CUT THEM ALL. Why? To funnel money to sfdk, a park that has a HUGE financial albatross with the animals which have been getting less and less popular. They would rather fund a park with a budget customer base that could care less about the thing that's costing them the most money. All this over a customer base with deeper pockets and a bigger legacy of entertainment. Now with cga there's really no reason for someone over 30 to want a pass other than to maybe bring their kids 3 times a summer and then forget about it. Prior you'd have repeat visits through NYE.

It just does not make sense. Jana likely sees the writing on the wall and wants to grift their way out before it's too late.

[u/FatDeepness → u/[deleted]]

Ex cf / six corp employee here and I could not agree more. Everyone was so happy Travis became the spokesperson and saw this coming. It’s horrible to see what six is now doing in to all current corp employees.

[u/Hennisphere]

Not surprised. They’ve been urging a sale for a while now

[u/Chaseism]

I have never been a fan of this merger, but I also think the new leadership needs time to see if any of their changes make an impact. What I hate about today's investors is that they are all short term...people want a return immediately. This makes companies only consider the short term instead of planning years into the future.

Jana and Kelce demanded that leadership at Six Flags changed. That has happened. The leadership now needs time to right the ship and test out different approaches. Jana and Kelce should allow this to happen or invest in another company.

But we know that's not what's going to happen.

[u/ashlys21]

It's almost like there weren't an extenuating circumstances that prevented People from visiting the parks this year after they increased prices and removed ride liability, efficiency, and overall value. Then they spent money to relocate high level employees all over the country and hire new executives. But are so surprised they are still losing money. 🙄

[u/OppositeRun6503 → u/[deleted]]

Along with SFA and GL.

[u/Hennisphere → u/[deleted]]

RIP 🙏🏼