Cirque du Soleil

[Bill Mullins]

Cirque du Soleil Las Vegas has gone under.

[CraigMitchell]

In a fascinating example of perfect timing - founder Guy Laliberte offloaded his final shares in Feb of this year ...

And ironically may well be in the running to purchase the company back.

[Gordon Meyer]

Reports say they have nearly a billion dollars of debt. Not a typo — BILLION. Yowza.

[Jack Shalom]

I never understood the model of Cirque--start with a circus and then eliminate everything that's fun about it. Not a winning formula.

[Richard Kaufman]

I've never cared for Cirque shows. Too much sameness, and a lot of it was boring to me. Last one I saw was Love, and the music was great.

[Joe Lyons]

The first show I saw under a tent in Houston was magical, transformative.
The novel format and hypnotic music was an elixir.

In repetition it didn’t hold up for me, however, I continued to appreciate the physical acrobatics.

[Ian Kendall]

We went to see Crystal when it came to Glasgow in March. It was a spectacular show, which was much enjoyed.

I'd have loved to have seen some of the other shows. Hopefully one day...

[CraigMitchell]

I never understood the model of Cirque--start with a circus and then eliminate everything that's fun about it. Not a winning formula.

Not a winning formula ? You were in the minority, Jack. It was an entertainment juggernaut - and one of the most successful franchises about ( prior to its private equity buyout which was predominantly responsible for its eye watering debt )

[Tom Moore]

Cirque the entertainments business was profitable and reasonably successful - some recent closures damaged the balance sheet but it was fundamentally a profitable business in its own right and the three other production companies it purchased (one of which owns "The Illusionists") were all very profitable and in demand. The problem is the succession of venture capital buyouts where each time the purchaser has flipped their investment in to a loan that the cirque business had to pay for rather than the purchasers. The payments were eye watering - something in the region of $300m per year in interest whose turnover was just under $1bn; the business was effectively just about breaking even so when you add in a couple of show closures and then the end of all ticket revenue for 8 months the debt builds up fast and there's never been an opportunity to build up a cash reserve.

Cirque will be back - the vegas branch produced $100m/year operating profit fairly easily, the secondary brands (Blue man, Cirque 1903, Illusionists) all produce steady profits and have world tour bookings, the touring shows are more of a risk and certainly you won't see 12+ touring units out at the same time but again it is still a viable business.

Every one of the bankruptcy rescue bids is a different method of stripping the loan debt out of the company and once that's done the return will be very quick.

[Roger M.]

Not sure folks really understand Quebec, or the Quebec mindset, and thus they don't at all understand Cirque.
The Quebec provincial government will ensure that Cirque survives - as the piece of Quebec culture that it is.
Quebecers don't let anybody screw around with their heritage or their culture.