Caesars Entertainment Corporation

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This article is about the company known as "Harrah's Entertainment" before 2010. For the company Harrah's acquired in 2005, see Caesars Entertainment, Inc..
Caesars Entertainment Corporation
Type Public
Traded as NASDAQ: CZR
Industry Gaming,
Entertainment & Hospitality
Founded 1937
as Harrah's
Reno, Nevada, U.S.
2010
Renamed as Caesars Entertainment
Headquarters Paradise, Nevada, U.S.
Key people Gary Loveman,
CEO & Chairman
Jonathan Halkyard,
Chief Financial Officer
Products World Series of Poker
Total Rewards
Revenue increase $8.9 billion USD (2010)
Owner(s) Hamlet Holdings
Employees 70,000 (2010)
Website caesars.com
Former headquarters and current corporate offices

Caesars Entertainment Corporation (formerly Harrah's Entertainment from 1995 to 2010) is a public gaming corporation that owns and operates over 50 casinos, hotels, and seven golf courses under several brands. The company, based in Paradise, Nevada, is the largest gaming company in the world, with yearly revenues $8.9 billion (2010). Caesars is owned by Hamlet Holdings, a joint venture of Apollo Global Management and Texas Pacific Group, with Blackstone Group holding a minority stake.[1][2]

The name change from "Harrah's Entertainment Inc." to "Caesars Entertainment Corporation" was made official on November 23, 2010. Harrah's will remain a key brand in the newly named company. On November 5, 2010, Harrah's announced an initial public offering of 31,250,000 shares but retracted this offering on November 19.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] William F. Harrah era (1937–1978)

The company known as Harrah's Entertainment was founded on October 30, 1937 as a small bingo parlor in Reno, Nevada operated by William F. Harrah.[3][4] The company went public in 1971 with 450,000 shares. Following that, in 1972, it was listed on the American Stock Exchange and in 1973 Harrah's became the first casino company listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Company founder William F. Harrah died in 1978.

[edit] Post William F. Harrah era

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[edit] Under Holiday Inn

  • February 1980 – Holiday Inns, Inc. acquires Harrah's, Inc. who operated two hotel casinos in Reno and Lake Tahoe, the auto collection in Reno and private residences. The auto collection was the largest in the world, a frequent source of vehicles for Hollywood movie producers and a major tourism draw to the city of Reno. Liquidation of the assets in that collection, including almost 7,000 antique automobiles, reportedly returned the full purchase price of both hotels and casinos to Holiday Inn. Holiday Inn at the time had 1,600 hotels and interests in two casinos, a casino under construction in the marina district in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and a 40 percent ownership interest in River Boat Casino, Inc., a casino adjacent to the Holiday Inn hotel on the Las Vegas Strip.[4][5] In November, Harrah's Marina opens.[4]

[edit] Operating as The Promus Companies

  • January 1990 – Bass PLC acquires the Holiday Inn hotel business and The Promus Companies is created to retain the remaining assets and brands.[4] Promus stock began trading a month later (NYSE:PRI).
  • April 1992 – The company acquires its first Las Vegas property as Holiday Las Vegas is converted to a Harrah's casino.[4]
  • December 1994 Harrah's Phoenix Ak-Chin opens. This is opened under a management contract with the Ak-Chin Indian Community.

[edit] Renamed as Harrah's Entertainment, Inc.

  • June 1995 – The company is renamed to Harrah's Entertainment, Inc. following the split off of the Promus hotel brands (Embassy Suites, Hampton Inn, and Homewood Suites).[4]
  • May 1998 – Gary Loveman joins the organization as Chief Operating Officer.
Harrah's former logo
  • June 2003 – the Harrah's casino in Vicksburg, Mississippi is sold.

[edit] Purchase of Caesars Entertainment

  • June 13, 2005 – Harrah's completed the takeover of Caesars Entertainment. While the companies were not required to divest any properties, they did sell several properties before the merger was completed. This merger made Harrah's the largest gambling company[citation needed] with over 4 million square feet (370,000 m²) of casinos, almost 100,000 employees and over 40 casinos.[4] Later that month, the company announced that they would consolidate all their brand names under the Harrah's, Rio, Caesars, and Horseshoe brands. The company also took ownership of the Caesars Palace at Sea operations on Crystal Cruises ships.[7] Some standalone names, like Paris Las Vegas are likely to be retained. The rebranding of the two remaining Bally's properties in the company is scheduled, but a specific time line has not been disclosed.[citation needed] This acquisition takes the number of casinos owned by Harrah's in Las Vegas from 2 to 6.
  • November 29, 2005 – Harrah's Entertainment announced plans to sell the Flamingo Laughlin to AREP Boardwalk Properties LLC. The $170 million sale closed on May 19, 2006. As a condition of the sale, the property is to be renamed the Aquarius within 6 months.
  • December 2005 - Harrah’s acquires the Imperial Palace Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas for $370 million. The Imperial Palace occupies an 18.5-acre (7.5 ha) site directly between Harrah’s Las Vegas and the Flamingo. A year later the company announced that they intended to implode the IP, but later that decision is rescinded. This acquisition takes the number of casinos owned by Harrah's in Las Vegas from 6 to 7.
  • April 23, 2006 – a scavenger hunt style promotion called "Treasure Hunt" ended when an accident seriously hurt one employee and tourist, and killed one tourist. The accident happened when a robbery suspect fleeing police hit a mini-van carrying the Harrah's employee and tourists.
  • May 26, 2006 – in Las Vegas, NV, Harrah's acquired a 19.6-acre (7.9 ha) site behind, but not adjacent to the Imperial Palace with frontage on Koval Road. The cost for the land was $164.4 million. The site is currently occupied by the Desert Club Apartments.

[edit] Company goes private

  • February 2007 - Barbary Coast (the 7th casino in Las Vegas) is acquired in a land swap with Boyd Gaming and is renamed Bill's Gamblin' Hall and Saloon, named after company founder Bill Harrah. The new casino is very small, but provides another piece of contiguous land for future development in Las Vegas.
  • November 2007 - Harrah's acquired the Orient Golf Club on the Cotai Strip in Macau for approximately US$580M. The land area is roughly 180 acres (0.73 km2).[citation needed]
  • January 2008 - Harrah's assumes $20 billion in debt when private equity firms Apollo Global Management and Texas Pacific Group acquired the company.
  • April 9, 2008 – Harrah's Entertainment's board of directors approved a corporate name change to Caesars Entertainment Corporation. This change will capitalize on the international name recognition enjoyed on the Caesars name brand. The Harrah's brand remains one of the company's three primary casino brands.[9]
  • December 1, 2009 - Harrah's filed applications with Nevada gaming regulators seeking approval to acquire the Planet Hollywood Casino which is next to their Las Vegas properties. This acquisition will be their 8th casino in Las Vegas.[10] Harrah's assembled all of its existing Las Vegas properties, by purchasing existing resorts beginning in April 1992. It was widely announced in previous years that the company planned to implode properties and build new ones from scratch, but after the market downturn the company conceded that it had little experience in building major resorts. Instead it developed Project Link in 2009, which calls for retaining and improving all existing buildings while adding a collection of about 20 restaurants and bars to be built along a winding corridor between the company's O'Sheas and Flamingo casinos, on the east side of the Strip. It is an attempt to create the kind of entertainment district that has developed organically in cities such as Los Angeles, Memphis and New Orleans yet is lacking on the Strip, with its enclosed, casino-centric zones.[11] If this new zone is successful it will provide competition for the Fremont Street Experience.

The acquisition of Planet Hollywood will provide Harrah's with a contiguous 126-acre (0.51 km2) property bordering the strip. The vacant lots behind the casinos had been slated for a sports arena large enough to hold a professional basketball or hockey team. The three casinos will have over 8000 rooms which can be directly connected to the arena.

  • October 19, 2010 Harrah's filed with the SEC to raise up to $575 million in an initial public offering. Harrah's will change it name to Caesars Entertainment after the long delayed announcement when it launches its IPO, Trading on the NASDAQ stock exchange under CZR (which was the ticker symbol for Caesars Entertainment - which Harrah's bought in 2005).[13]
  • In November 2011, the company filed again with the SEC for an initial public offering trading as CZR.[14]

[edit] Rename to Caesars Entertainment Corp.

  • November 2010 plans for an IPO were canceled at least for now but a planned name change from Harrah's Entertainment Inc to Caesars Entertainment Corp did go forward as planned and was made official November 23, 2010.

[edit] Properties

Main article: List of Caesars Entertainment properties

[edit] Book

In 2010, Chronicle Books published Harrah's Entertainment Presents...The Seven Stars Cookbook: Recipes from World-Class Casino Restaurants by John Schlimm. The coffee table-sized cookbook contains more than 125 recipes from Harrah's Entertainment chefs as well as photographs by Frankie Frankeny.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Knightly, Arnold (2008-01-29). "MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS: Deal closes: Caesars now private". http://www.lvrj.com/business/14688032.html. Retrieved 2008-01-29. 
  2. ^ http://www.blackstone.com/private_equity/corp_pe/portfolio.asp?Order=ByPortfolioCompany&ll=h&ul=m
  3. ^ "About Us". http://www.harrahs.com/harrahs-corporate/about-us.html. Retrieved 2008-01-29. 
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n "Company History". http://www.harrahs.com/harrahs-corporate/media-company-history.html. Retrieved 2008-01-29. 
  5. ^ a b "Harrah's Entertainment". answers.com. http://www.answers.com/topic/harrah-s-entertainment-inc?cat=biz-fin. Retrieved 2007-08-13. 
  6. ^ a b "Harrahs Entertainment Inc · 8-K · For 4/21/99 · EX-99.1". http://www.secinfo.com/dVut2.6Fxr.d.htm. Retrieved 2007-08-13. 
  7. ^ "Business: Respect Caesars, Harrah's told". Las Vegas Review-Journal. http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2004/Aug-13-Fri-2004/business/24474775.html. Retrieved 2009-08-10. 
  8. ^ "Form 10K 2006" (PDF). http://library.corporate-ir.net/library/84/847/84772/items/236339/2006_10K.pdf. Retrieved 2007-11-06. 
  9. ^ Stutz, Howard (2008-04-10). "Harrah's opts to hail name of Caesars". Las Vegas Review-Journal. http://www.lvrj.com/business/17455959.html. 
  10. ^ "Harrah's steps closer to hotel deal". http://www.lvrj.com/business/harrahs-steps-closer-to-hotel-deal-78206177.html. 
  11. ^ "Harrah’s plans new ‘street’ of bars, eateries near Strip". http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/jul/12/harrahs-plans-new-street-bars-eateries-near-strip/. 
  12. ^ http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/feb/19/harrahs-officially-takes-over-planet-hollywood/
  13. ^ http://www.renaissancecapital.com/ipohome/news/Harrahs-Entertainment-files-for-$575-million-IPO-8566.html
  14. ^ "Caesars Entertainment refiles for a $50 million IPO; actual deal size likely higher". Renaissance Capital. 15 November 2011. http://www.renaissancecapital.com/ipohome/news/Caesars-Entertainment-refiles-for-a-$50-million-IPO;-actual-deal-size-likel-10575.html. 

[edit] Further reading

Shook, Robert L. (2003). Jackpot. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0-471-26323-0 

[edit] External links

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