{"id":169599,"date":"2018-07-06T05:37:29","date_gmt":"2018-07-06T09:37:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=169599"},"modified":"2018-07-06T05:37:29","modified_gmt":"2018-07-06T09:37:29","slug":"cirque-du-soleil-acquires-minnesota-based-company-as-part-of-expansion-drive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/07\/06\/cirque-du-soleil-acquires-minnesota-based-company-as-part-of-expansion-drive\/","title":{"rendered":"Cirque du Soleil acquires Minnesota based company as part of expansion drive"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"LUZIA<\/a>
LUZIA by Cirque du Soleil. (Photo<\/a>: Cirque du Soleil<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MONTREAL \u2014 The Cirque du Soleil Entertainment Group has announced the acquisition of a Minnesota-based company that produces theatrical shows, exhibits, cruise ship activities and outdoor events.<\/p>\n

The deal announced Thursday is for VStar Entertainment Group and its Florida-based subsidiary, Cirque Dreams.<\/p>\n

While terms were not disclosed, Cirque du Soleil president Daniel Lamarre told The Canadian Press the transaction is worth \u201cseveral million dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n

VStar, which has about 120 employees, is best known for its children and family shows, including \u201cPAW Patrol.\u201d<\/p>\n

The PAW Patrol Live ‘Race to the Rescue’ tour visited 250 cities in 18 countries on four continents in 2017.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us, it’s clearly an entry into the world of children’s shows,\u201d Lamarre said in the interview.<\/p>\n

VStar CEO Eric Grilly said his company has traditionally been able to grow over the years because of partnerships.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe now find ourselves on the brink of our next chapter and only a global producer like Cirque du Soleil could help us achieve our vision,\u201d Grilly said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Lamarre said Cirque Dreams’ expertise in the production of shows in theatres and tourism hot spots will help broaden the Cirque du Soleil’s portfolio.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Cirque (du Soleil) sells about 13 million tickets a year,\u201d Lamarre said. \u201cOur acquisitions since last year have added another four million to our sales.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thursday’s announcement comes a year after the Cirque bought the Blue Man Group.<\/p>\n

And the Cirque hasn’t finished diversifying.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to be able to be in a market for as long as possible,\u201d Lamarre said. \u201cThat’s why we’re looking for shows that are different from the ones we currently have in our portfolio.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since 2015, American investment firm TPG Capital has owned 60 per cent of the Cirque du Soleil, with Chinese firm Fosun Capital Group having a 20 per cent share.<\/p>\n

Quebec’s pension fund manager, the Caisse de depot et placement, has a 10 per cent stake, as does Cirque co-founder Guy Laliberte.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MONTREAL \u2014 The Cirque du Soleil Entertainment Group has announced the acquisition of a Minnesota-based company that produces theatrical shows, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":169602,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[48633,52819],"class_list":["post-169599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-art-and-culture","tag-cirque-du-soleil","tag-cirque-du-soleil-entertainment-group","mauthors-julien-arsenault","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}