Seaworld Parks and Entertainment, most often referred to as simply SeaWorld, is a family oriented entertainment company. Originally owned by Anehauser-Busch, SeaWorld was created as a subsidiary in March of 1960 to operate an assortment of Busch theme parks. Anehauser-Busch sold this division to The BlackStone Group in December of 2009.
SeaWorld currently has 6 theme parks and more than 22,000 employees. This publicly traded company (NYSE: SEAS) has recently fallen on hard times with the release of a CNN documentary entitled Blackfish in 2013. The documentary is highly critical of SeaWorld’s handling of their infamous killer whale exhibits. SeaWorld stated that this documentary had hurt their revenues at most parks, especially their San Diego location, and that stock revenues had fallen 44%.
The company announced that CEO Jim Atchison was resigning in December of 2014 and was replaced with Joel Manby. Total income has dropped more than 3% between 2014 and 2015 and park visitors have fallen by more tha 100,000.
