After fielding several offers, Pinnacle Entertainment has liquidated Lumiere Place Casino and its affiliated Four Seasons hotel to … Carl Icahn. Uncle Carl spent $260 million to close the deal. Considering that the book value of Lumiere 
Place is $401.5 million, you could say he got a bargain. He certainly Pinnacle where he wanted it, since it was under Federal Trade Commission-imposed duress to sell the property and soon. Icahn called it a “judicious acquistion.” However, as Deutsche Bank analyst Carlo Santarelli writes, “we believe the actual multiple to the buyer is likely a tad higher than the implied 7.5x [cash flow].” Since the industry average for this sort of transaction is seven times EBITDA, did Icahn overpay for Lumiere — a disappointing performer already? How unlike him. As for his counterpart, Pinnacle Entertainment CEO Anthony Sanfilippo, given the assets he gains from Ameristar Casinos by forfeiting Lumiere Place, he’s achieving addition by subtraction on a significant scale.
Does the Cosmopolitan have a death wish? You’d think so, given that it has neither gone non-union (as per Sheldon Adelson) nor signed the same deal 
that the Culinary Union and every other major Strip property — save Venelazzo — have agreed upon. No, Cosmo seems to think it deserves special treatment … and will be rewarded with picketing on a weekly basis. It has enough trouble scaring up business. How CEO John Unwin (left) thinks that following in the footsteps of Margaret Elardi is a good idea is beyond me. The Cosmo’s empty blather — “We feel we have been making good progress on behalf of our CoStars and we are hopeful that progress can continue in a positive direction. As always, our highest priority is the safety and comfort of our guests and CoStars and we will continue to work with the authorities” — gives one little cause for hope.
Colbert report. Executives at Cantor Gaming probably wish they’d never heard of Mike Colbert, formerly affiliated with Cantor and currently under New York State indictment. However, Colbert isn’t doing them any favors with his current high-profile activities, as Howard Stutz entertainingly chronicles.
There goes Lumiere and the Four Seasons! I’m not a fan of Icahn and have yet seen a property improve under his ownership. They usually deteriorate until he unloads them.
I wouldn’t argue that Carl is Bill Yung, by any means, but agreed, he usually just tows the line with his assets until a great offer comes along. He has some history of re-investing is his assets though.
I asked gaming Exec, whose company I figured would have been perect for Lumiere, if they were looking at the property. His response: “They can keep it”.