Let me talk about mergers and acquisitions for a minute, if I may.

I barely know anything about the workings of multimillion-dollar corporations and why they do what they do. However, I see what they do when they participate in a larger merger or acquisition, and I have my opinions on this.

I personally get anxious whenever I hear about a merger. I wonder what the new company made up of two smaller ones will do.

For example, recently the theme park company Six Flags merged with another theme park company called Cedar Fair, and the company formed was named Six Flags. I rather wish that the new company had been named Six Cedars or Flag Fair or something that combined the two names, but Cedar Fair’s name was shut out. One of my favorite theme parks, Dorney Park in Pennsylvania, was owned by Cedar Fair and is now owned by the new Six Flags. I worry about the quality of Dorney Park going downhill in the future, because the “old” Six Flags owned Six Flags America in Maryland, which I thought was rather dirty and not well taken care of the last time I was there (2007). As everybody’s parents used to say, “We’ll see.”

Another example is the merger of the two satellite radio companies Sirius and XM, which are now one company called Sirius XM. I admit that I haven’t listened much to satellite radio, which I see as a luxury item that is out of my reach. I was rather nervous when I heard about the merger; where will the competition be? However, in the fall of 2025, my husband and I bought a 2023 Toyota Corolla which was equipped with Sirius XM; the service was given to us for free for three months. There are some really good stations on Sirius XM and a great variety, enough to get us addicted to them (but sorry, not enough for us to shell out money to receive them).

The mergers and acquisitions that make me the most anxious are perhaps those involving entertainment corporations. For example, in 2019 Disney bought Fox. “My goodness,” I thought. “Will Fox lose its ‘edge’ with its TV shows? Will Disney become less family-friendly?” Honestly, I watch such little entertainment TV these days that I cannot answer these questions after seven years.

Which mergers and/or acquisitions are you the most anxious about?