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Harrah's Entertainment

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Harrahs Entertainment, Inc.
Type Public (NYSE: HET)
Founded Reno, Nevada (1937)
Headquarters Las Vegas, Nevada
Key people Gary Loveman, CEO
Charles L. Atwood, CFO
Industry Entertainment & Hospitality
Products Casino Games
Resorts
Revenue $7.11 billion USD (2005)
Employees 85,000 (2005)
Slogan Oh Yeah!
Website www.harrahs.com

Harrah's Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: HET) is a gaming corporation that owns and operates casinos, hotels, and six golf courses under several brands. The company, based in Las Vegas, Nevada, is the largest gaming company in the world, with yearly revenues around $7.11 billion. On December 19, 2006, the company's board of directors voted to accept a buyout offer from Apollo Management and Texas Pacific Group for $17 billion, or $90-per-share.[1] The corporation's shareholders approved the proposed buyout in April, 2007.[2] Approval by regulators is needed before buyout is complete.

Contents

History

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. The company went public in 1971 with 450,000 shares. Following that, it was listed on the American Stock Exchange in 1972 and in 1973 Harrah's becomes the first casino company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Company founder William F. Harrah died in 1978.

Post William F. Harrah era

 This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please improve this article if you can (January 2008).
  • February 1980 - Holiday Inns, Inc. acquires Harrah's Las Vegas. 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.[3]
  • 1988 - Harrah's Laughlin opens.
  • 1991 - Company headquarters moved from Reno to Memphis, Tennessee[3]
  • 1992 - Holiday Las Vegas converted to Harrah's.
  • May 1993 - Harrah's Joliet opens.
  • November 1993 - Harrah's Vicksburg opens.
  • December 1993 - Harrah's Tunica opens.
  • April 1994 Harrah's Shreveport, opens..
  • October 1997 - Harrah's completes $200 million expansion to Las Vegas.
  • On January 1, 1999 Harrah's closed the purchase of the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino and Rio Secco Golf course for $888 million.[4]
  • 1999 - The company moves its headquarters from Memphis, Tennessee to Las Vegas.[4]
  • June 2003 - Sold Harrah's Vicksburg.
  • March 2004 - Harrah's purchased Binion's Horseshoe. On March 11, 2004, Harrah's sold Binion's Horseshoe to MTR Gaming Group retaining the rights to the Horsehoe brand and the World Series of Poker. Later in 2004, Harrah's closed on the purchase of Horseshoe Gaming Holding Corporation.
  • On 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 with over 4 million square feet (370,000 m²) of casinos, almost 100,000 employees and over 40 casinos.
  • June 2005 - At the end of June 2005, Harrah's Entertainment CEO Gary Loveman announced that the company will consolidate all their brand names under the following: Harrah's, Rio, Caesars, and Horseshoe. Some stand alone names, like Paris Las Vegas are likely to be retained. First up will be the rebranding of the two remaining Bally's properties in the company, but Loveman did not give any exact specifics or a time line of when this will occur.
  • August 2005 - Harrah's New Orleans, Grand Casino Biloxi, and Grand Casino Gulfport were closed because of Hurricane Katrina. The Grand's location was largely destroyed, with all of the barge-based buildings containing their gaming areas being torn from their moorings and blown across U.S. Highway 90.
  • September 2005 - Harrah's Pride of Lake Charles was severely damaged by Hurricane Rita. One riverboat was pushed completely onshore, and the other is at the Port of Lake Charles awaiting repairs. All of the restaurants and support buildings were destroyed. Harrah's estimates that the rebuilding will take 2 years.
  • On 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.
  • On December 12, 2005, a sale of the Grand Casino Gulfport, for an undisclosed amount, to Gulfside Casino Partnership was announced. Gulfside is the owner of the Copa Casino which is next to the Grand Casino. The announcement also stated that the Grand Casino Biloxi is to be rebuilt from scratch as a Horseshoe casino. Harrah's New Orleans, which didn't receive much damage from the storm, reopened on February 17, 2006 with approximately half of the employees it had before the hurricane.
  • On 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.
  • On May 26, 2006, in Las Vegas, NV, Harrah's acquired a 19.6 acre 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.
  • On October 2, 2006, The Wall Street Journal announced that private-equity firms were close to buying Harrah's Entertainment in what would rank as one of the largest leveraged buyouts in history. A number of private-equity firms, including Texas Pacific Group and Apollo Management, have been involved in the talks. The offer was for $15.05 billion. The company also announced plans to trade 24 acres on the strip for the Barbary Coast Hotel and Casino.
  • In December 2006, Harrah's acquired London Clubs International for $568 million.[5]
  • April 2007 - Harrah's makes Pokertek its exclusive provider of automated poker tables at Harrah's casinos.

Casinos

Bally's brand

Note: Bally's Casino Tunica is not under Harrah's ownership, having been sold to Colony Capital as part of the Caesars Entertainment merger deal.

Caesars brand

Grand Casino brand

The name chages of both casino will eliminate the Grand Casino brand.

Harrah's brand

Harrah's Joliet
Harrah's Joliet

Horseshoe brand

Other casino names

Image:Billsgamblinhalllogo.gif

Golf club and courses

  • Atlantic City Country Club – Atlantic City, NJ - Acquired from the Caesars Entertainment merger
  • Cascata Golf Course – Las Vegas, Nevada
  • Chariot Run Golf Course – Laconia, Indiana
  • Cottonwoods Golf Course – Tunica, Mississippi
  • Grand Bear Golf Course – Gulfport, Mississippi

Other assets

  • Roman Empire Development (RED) formed in 2006 to manage room renovation projects internally. Closed on December 12, 2007 following reports of reconstruction being done without required permits.[7]
  • Total Rewards
  • World Series of Poker- Buyout through Binion Horeshoe acquisition.

Logos

Image:60s.jpg Early Harrah's logo, 50's through early 60's. Image:1970's.jpg Logo used during the late 60's through 1970's Image:1980's.jpg Harrah's bold logo debuted in 1979. Harrah's 50th Anniversary in 1987. N/A Harrah's globe logo released in 1995. Current logo as of 2001.

References

  1. ^ "Harrah's Entertainment board agrees to $90 a share buyout bid", Las Vegas Sun, December 19, 2006.
  2. ^ "Harrah's shareholders approve biggest casino buyout ever", The Sun Herald, April 5, 2007.
  3. ^ a b Harrah's Entertainment. answers.com. Retrieved on 2007-08-13.
  4. ^ a b Harrahs Entertainment Inc · 8-K · For 4/21/99 · EX-99.1. Retrieved on 2007-08-13.
  5. ^ Form 10K 2006. Retrieved on 2007-11-06.
  6. ^ "Casino Windsor to become Caesars Windsor in '08", Detroit Free Press, December 15, 2006.
  7. ^ "REMODELING CONTROVERSY: Harrah's shutters subsidiary", Las Vegas Review-Journal, 2007-12-13. Retrieved on 2007-12-16. 

Shook, Robert L., Jackpot, ISBN 0-471-26323-0

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Harrah's Entertainment from Wíkipedia. ©2006 by Wíkipedia. Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. View a list of authors or edit this article.

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