Lego, the Denmark-based toy giant, is joining forces with Blackstone Group and a Canadian pension fund to acquire UK theme park operator Merlin Entertainment for $6 billion. The offer price from the Lego group is 60 cents a share for Merlin, which imputes a $6 billion valuation. Lego is a privately held company still…

Seeking to outdo Sinclair Broadcasting, the nation’s No. 1 owner of local TV stations, 21st Century Fox and private equity firm Blackstone Group are teaming to make a bid for Tribune Media, according to a report in the Financial Times. Citing two people familiar with the negotiations, the FT said Blackstone would…

David Calhoun did a lot of good turning around Nielsen‘s fortunes when he joined as CEO of the ratings company in 2006 after being a top lieutenant at Jack Welch’s GE. (In this town, that success did not trickle down to one of Nielsen’s holdings, trade mag The Hollywood Reporter, which continued to bleed money and…

Executives at Universal Orlando can breathe a little easier this evening now that Comcast has agreed to pay The Blackstone Group $1.025 billion for its 50% stake in the theme park. The deal consolidating ownership at Comcast-controlled NBCUniversal means the park will be able to hang on to licensing agreements with…

A holding company that oversees the theme parks said in a regulatory filing this week that the private-equity group has offered to sell its 50% stake in the Florida parks to NBC Universal, which owns the rest of the venture. Comcast-owned NBCU has until June 12 to make a call on that offer; after that, Blackstone can…