They are the parent company that owns Merlin and half of Universal Studios. The parks in the Merlin chain include: Alton Towers, Chessington World of Adventures, Thorpe Park, Heide Park and the Legoland parks.
^ It really is a steal for that price. It is close to what Cedar Fair paid for the Paramount parks and this deal came with 5 massive true theme parks, Sesame Place and some water parks.
Blackstone is still getting the better deal. They are paying a lot, but they are getting a lot in well maintained, well known and profitable parks with excellent reputations. They will bring in revenue right off the bat. With Cedar Fair they acquired a bunch of parks that had been neglected for years, and just about all have been underperforming, and you can see now Cedar Fair is having to put in a whole bunch of not so cheap rides to get those parks up to par. So far by the count off the top of my head they are up to at least 3 B&M Hypers(Canadas Wonderland, KI and Carowinds) and One Intamin Giga (KD) along with a few ride relocation's(KD, KI, MiAdv though that wasn't part of the paramount deal).
Favorite Wood Coasters: The Voyage, Ravine Flyer II, Thunderhead, Balder Favorite Steel: Voltron Nevera, Steel Vengeance, Expedition GeForce, Olympia Looping Parks visited: 232, Coasters Ridden: Steel: 894, Wood: 179, Total: 1073