{"id":5073,"date":"2010-11-04T15:11:04","date_gmt":"2010-11-04T23:11:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=5073"},"modified":"2010-11-04T15:32:10","modified_gmt":"2010-11-04T23:32:10","slug":"icahns-ceo-jumps-ship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/icahns-ceo-jumps-ship\/","title":{"rendered":"Icahn’s CEO jumps ship"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nIn something of a shocker, Scott Butera<\/strong>, CEO of Tropicana Entertainment<\/strong> is leaving the firm<\/a> to join a rival — but undisclosed — casino company. It’s an amicable parting, judging by the fact that Butera is staying to smooth over the transition. Maybe the realization that Carl Icahn<\/strong> wasn’t going to open Fontainebleau<\/strong> (now Uncle Carl’s Carpet Barn) anytime soon and possibly dimmed the job’s luster for Butera. More to the point, Butera’s not an operator (as he demonstrated at the Tropicana Las Vegas<\/strong>), he’s a reorganizer (as he proved at Trump Entertainment Resorts<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

So let the guessing game begin. In order to fit Butera’s portfolio of expertise, it has to be a casino company that’s in serious financial straits. We can rule out Station Casinos<\/strong> because it’s already gone through Chapter 11 and Deutsche Bank<\/strong> has its own man, Marc Falcone<\/strong>, as CFO. Likewise, Riviera Holdings<\/strong> just installed an entirely new management team. Scratch that possibility. Shufflemaster<\/strong> just named an interim<\/em> CEO but Wall Street<\/strong> is starting to voice impatience with the interminable search to replace the late Timothy Parrott<\/strong>. Ttop-management shuffles just ended at Herbst Gaming<\/strong> and Butera’s old Trump stomping grounds.<\/p>\n

Over in Macao you’ll find a high-ranking vacancy at Galaxy Entertainment<\/strong> but it’s at COO<\/a>. Close, no cigar. Morgans Hotel Group<\/strong> has totally screwed the pooch at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino<\/strong>, so it might be time for yet another management shakeup there. CityCenter<\/strong> needs to restructure $1.8 billion in debt<\/a>. Would it be prudent for Bobby Baldwin<\/strong> to update his resume? By the way, if MGM Resorts International<\/strong> CEO Jim Murren<\/strong> stays on his ‘recovery is just around the corner’ meme long enough, he’ll eventually be right.<\/p>\n

MGM business partner Foxwoods Resort Casino<\/strong> is in a world of hurt and what’s left of the Colony Capital<\/strong> casino portfolio, another prospective patient in Butera’s ICU, is hanging by a thread. An even more logical candidate is Don Barden<\/strong>‘s Majestic Star Casino<\/strong> company, which went bust a year ago<\/a>. In Barden’s home town of Detroit<\/strong>, laggard Greektown Casino<\/strong> has gone through three management teams in 11 months and is emerging from bankruptcy. So, as you see, there’s no shortage of ailing casinos in need of Dr. Butera’s Rx.<\/p>\n

Who am I missing here? Help me out, folks. The winning conjecture gets you a free copy of Eating Las Vegas<\/em><\/a> (Al Mancini<\/strong>‘s goatee not included).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In something of a shocker, Scott Butera, CEO of Tropicana Entertainment is leaving the firm to join a rival — but undisclosed — casino company. It’s an amicable parting, judging by the fact that Butera is staying to smooth over … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[82,56,3,15,28,44,83,42,14,59,123,102,107,20,21,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5073"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5073"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5075,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5073\/revisions\/5075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}