In an $8 billion deal announced on Thursday, amusement parks Six Flags and Cedar Fair will merge, creating one mega theme park company operating across North America.
In total, the companies control a combined 27 amusement parks and 15 water parks across the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
The merger was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, which noted that a deal had been in the works throughout this week.
The amusement park companies hope that merging will give them “a more robust operating model and a strong revenue and cash flow generation profile,” Reuters reported.
The merger will also help each company reach a new region of North America, as they both operate in different areas of the country and help to manage seasonal changes in park attendance.
Cedar Fair owns several parks, including Cedar Point, located in Sandusky, Ohio; Knott’s Berry Farm in California; Schlitterbahn Water Park in Texas; and Wonderland in Toronto, Ontario.
Six Flags has 20 parks in the U.S., two in Mexico, and one in Canada.
Cedar Fair shared in the announcement that the merger will allow the company to ramp up investments in the parks, which is expected to help with demand.
The new company will keep the Six Flags name but trade under Cedar Fair's stock ticker FUN.
The merger will also save the companies $200 million, according to their projections. More than half of those savings are coming from administrative and operational cost savings. The company is forecasting $3.4 billion in revenue.