Mar 5, 2007 6:43 pm US/Eastern
It's Official. Seminoles Purchase Hard Rock
Seminole Tribe Purchased Hard Rock For $965 Million
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MIAMI (CBS4) ―
The Seminole Tribe of Florida held a signing ceremony Monday to mark its $965 million dollar purchase of the Hard Rock cafes, hotels, casinos and music memorabilia from The Rank Group.
Tribe members gathered under an oak tree on Seminole land in Broward County for the event.
The deal, first announced in December and approved by Rank Group shareholders in January, poises the tribe of about 3,300 members to become a player in the worldwide hospitality industry. It also gives the tribe's gaming operations room to grow in states where gambling is legal.
The Hard Rock business, includes 124 Hard Rock Cafes, four Hard Rock Hotels, two Hard Rock Casino Hotels, two Hard Rock Live! concert venues and stakes in three unbranded hotels. It also features a collection of rock 'n' roll memorabilia that includes 70,000 pieces, including guitars owned by Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton.
The Seminole Tribe, the first U.S. American Indian tribe to get into the gambling business, says the deal is an American tribe's first purchase of a major international corporation. The tribe owns and operates five other casinos in Florida.
The deal does not include Hard Rock's Las Vegas casino, which is owned by Morgans Hotel Group, or Morgans' rights to Hard Rock intellectual property in Australia, Brazil, Israel, Venezuela and many areas of the United States west of the Mississippi River.
Rank has said the sale freed it to concentrate on gambling. It retained the Hard Rock Casino in London and plans to change it to the Rank Gaming brand.
In a Rank Group earnings report filed Friday, Hard Rock International reported operating profits increased 18.7 percent to $74.8 million, from $63 million the year before. It saw continued growth and improvement in all four business divisions comprising company-owned cafes, franchise cafes, hotels and casinos, a news release said.
(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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