Shareholders vote Tuesday to decide if AMC Entertainment Holdings gets the green light to acquire Carmike Cinemas for $1.2B—and become the world’s largest theater chain.
The deal was met with hostility back in March when AMC brought a $1.1B or $30 a share deal to the table. Investors baulked and the vote was delayed, but tomorrow Carmike shareholders will finally decide on the acquisition, the Wall Street Journal reports. AMC is also pursuing a second acquisition to expand the firm to Europe, hoping to acquire Odeon & UCI Cinemas Group for $650M before the end of the year.
If both deals close, AMC’s location count will soar from its current 388 to about 900. But it’s not so clear they will—on top of shareholder opposition, one prominent lobbyist is waging a campaign against AMC’s controlling stakeholder, Beijing-based Dalian Wanda Group, calling AMC “China’s Red Puppet.” [WSJ]
