Lego wants to buy Merlin Entertainment

[Roebuck]

Probably good news for Legoland parks

https://www.ft.com/content/ca689fb4-992b-11e9-8cfb-30c211dcd229

[AmperZand]

I saw that too: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48797245

Would be 'awesome' if Chessington and Alton Towers amusement parks became Legolands! 

[Digger of Bricks]

3 hours ago, AmperZand said:

I saw that too: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48797245

Huh, I've strangely never heard of Kirkbi Holdings before until I read that link... 

[ks6349]

I hope Lego will release buildings of Asian style. For example, Thailand, China, Japan etc....

[KotZ]

I used to work at an LDC for awhile, as well as a Madame Tussauds. This definitely could be a good move for TLG. Some people I'm friends with from the LDC days seem a little confused/worried on FaceBook about this.

Lego is like "Not just the Legolands, but the SeaLifes, and the Alton Towers, too! They're like investments, and I bought them like investments. I own them!"

[TeriXeri]

Interestingly, the upcoming LEGOLAND Discovery Centre in Scheveningen (open in 2020) is right next to Sea Life Scheveningen.

Hopefully they have a decent sized LEGO Store.

Edited June 28, 2019 by TeriXeri

[danth]

My hot take: This is to make Lego even more attractive for their inevitable sale to Disney.

[KotZ]

21 minutes ago, danth said:

My hot take: This is to make Lego even more attractive for their inevitable sale to Disney.

Please no

[splatman]

Agree! The only place for such nonsense is here:
https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/107696-hail-our-new-overlords/

[Mylenium]

14 hours ago, danth said:

My hot take: This is to make Lego even more attractive for their inevitable sale to Disney.

Perhaps not, but that aside, one mustn't be under any illusion that this is nothing more than the investors parking their money and writing off taxes. I doubt too much will come off it, even more so in such a competitive field as parks and attractions. And of course there's that dark cloud on the horizon - the Legoland parks were a not so minor contributing factor in the various LEGO crises and didn't exactly bring in a ton of cash. Personally I'm just stumped by this move and it seems to make little to no sense, at least where their core business is concerned.

Mylenium

[tafkatb]

4 hours ago, Mylenium said:

Perhaps not, but that aside, one mustn't be under any illusion that this is nothing more than the investors parking their money and writing off taxes. I doubt too much will come off it, even more so in such a competitive field as parks and attractions. And of course there's that dark cloud on the horizon - the Legoland parks were a not so minor contributing factor in the various LEGO crises and didn't exactly bring in a ton of cash. Personally I'm just stumped by this move and it seems to make little to no sense, at least where their core business is concerned.

Mylenium

Buuut... wasn't the problem there that LEGO themselves were trying to run the parks? That's not what's happening here. This isn't a matter of a toy company buying a theme park company, it's a holding and investment company with a controlling share of a toy company expanding their already-existing share of the theme park company. But that doesn't exactly make for snappy headlines and hot takes.

[Lyichir]

3 hours ago, tafkatb said:

Buuut... wasn't the problem there that LEGO themselves were trying to run the parks? That's not what's happening here. This isn't a matter of a toy company buying a theme park company, it's a holding and investment company with a controlling share of a toy company expanding their already-existing share of the theme park company. But that doesn't exactly make for snappy headlines and hot takes.

This is a key point. KIRKBI isn't Lego, they're the ones who own Lego, along with many other unrelated investments including real estate, renewable energy, and shares of various other Danish businesses. More information can be found on their website.

This is unlikely to have much of an impact on the way The Lego Group itself makes business decisions or resource allocation. At best, it should hopefully allow for better partnerships between The Lego Group, Lego Brand Retail, and the Legoland Parks, relieving some of the tension that separate ownership of those organizations has occasionally created between them.

Edited June 29, 2019 by Lyichir

[tafkatb]

46 minutes ago, Lyichir said:

This is unlikely to have much of an impact on the way The Lego Group itself makes business decisions or resource allocation. At best, it should hopefully allow for better partnerships between The Lego Group, Lego Brand Retail, and the Legoland Parks, relieving some of the tension that separate ownership of those organizations has occasionally created between them.

That's all I'm really hoping for. Like maybe integrating the gift card and VIP systems. And since I'd really love to work at a LEGOLAND park or Discovery Center someday, it would be nice to have the perks I enjoyed as an LBR employee carry over, but that's admittedly pure self interest.

[Mylenium]

19 hours ago, tafkatb said:

Buuut... wasn't the problem there that LEGO themselves were trying to run the parks? That's not what's happening here. This isn't a matter of a toy company buying a theme park company, it's a holding and investment company with a controlling share of a toy company expanding their already-existing share of the theme park company. But that doesn't exactly make for snappy headlines and hot takes.

Sure, but I'm still skeptical. Running theme parks isn't a cheap business. And in the end the differentiation between Kirkbi & LEGO itself is more or less just a technicality, after all. Dunno, I could see this having all sorts of weird sideeffects, but of course we'll have to see...

Mylenium

[LEGO Historian]

Kirkbi used to be owned by Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, Gunhild Kirk Johansen, and Edith Kirk Christiansen.

Gunhild (Kjeld's sister) sold off her interest in 2007 (for over 1 billion Euros), and Edith (Kjeld's mother) died at 91 in 2017.  So now Kjeld owns 62.5% of Kirkbi, and his 3 adult children Sofie, Thomas and Agnete own the other 37.5%.

[Aanchir]

On 6/30/2019 at 5:29 AM, Mylenium said:

Sure, but I'm still skeptical. Running theme parks isn't a cheap business. And in the end the differentiation between Kirkbi & LEGO itself is more or less just a technicality, after all

I don't see why it's "just a technicality". If that were the case you'd expect people to be panicking about LEGO overextending themselves by trying to run:

• their own offshore wind farms in the UK and Germany
• random non-LEGO real estate properties in Denmark, London, and Switzerland
• the 29.6% share of Merlin Entertainments that Kirkbi already owned

But in fact, there's a big difference between actually running those properties and running a holding company that owns them.

Plus, if LEGO and Kirkbi were effectively one and the same, what difference would it have made for Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen to step down as CEO and hand the reins to Jørgen Vig Knudstorp — or more recently, for Jørgen to step down and hand his title to Bali Padda? In each case, the departing CEO remained involved in a leadership position within Kirkbi, either as owner in Kjeld's case, or as chairman of the LEGO Brand Group in Jørgen's case.

I wouldn't be surprised if the latter were part of the preparations for this very acquisition of the remaining shares of Merlin Entertainments, creating an entity outside of The LEGO Group that would help maintain synergy between it and other companies like Merlin with major impacts on the reputation of the LEGO brand, regardless of what percentage of each company is owned by the Kirk Kristiansens.

Edited July 7, 2019 by Aanchir

[Robert8]

On 6/28/2019 at 12:06 PM, danth said:

My hot take: This is to make Lego even more attractive for their inevitable sale to Disney.

Hahaha

And they are going to make a live-action version of The LEGO Movie lol

 

Edited July 7, 2019 by Robert8

[koalayummies]

On 6/28/2019 at 11:06 AM, danth said:

My hot take: This is to make Lego even more attractive for their inevitable sale to Disney.

Have you ever thought about writing horror? Movies, books, campfire tales; I think you'd be great.