ALMOST ANY business is a good business at the right price.
Six Flags Inc., the national theme-park operator with an operation in Largo, suffers strategic befuddlement, enormous debt, declining attendance and five straight years of losses. But at an 85 percent markdown, its stock is fetching attention from the Potomac to the Puget.
Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder sank some $34.5 million into the company last month, even as cool weather and high gas prices continued to hurt its results. Snyder may agitate things by seeking a seat on the board or pushing for a merger, his investment company said last week.
Microsoft's Bill Gates is also gunning for change at Six Flags, and he has even more motivation. Gates put $160 million into Six Flags common and preferred stock, but unfortunately for him he bought at far higher prices.
Six Flags has plummeted from more than $40 a share in 1999 to a close of $5.76 last week.
Gates has "become increasingly dissatisfied with the financial performance" of Six Flags, his investment managers said last week. No kidding. His stake is worth some $70 million these days - a nice, 50 percent-plus loss.
Gates, too, may try to nominate a board member or ally with other shareholders to goose Six Flags' management, his company said.
Gates owns 11.5 percent of the company. Snyder owns 8.8 percent. Check the phone lines from Washington to Seattle this fall.
What can a billionaire computer geek and an egotistical football tycoon offer an amusement company that's a few ponies short of a merry-go-round?
Plenty, say industry pros.
"You don't have good themes in these parks anymore," says Gary Slade, publisher of Amusement Today, a monthly trade newspaper based in Arlington, Texas. "They've got to improve customer service. They've got to continue to improve their grounds quality - keeping the place clean, keeping it looking new, fixed-up, painted."
Times have been tough for theme parks since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and many companies have struggled. A relatively cool and wet summer hasn't helped.
But "Six Flags has some issues that it's dealing with that are not normal for the amusement park operator," as industry consultant Angus Jenkins delicately puts it. "I believe that they have lost a lot of public appeal just through the nature of reduced theming."
People don't know what Six Flags parks are about anymore, in other words.
