That's the company now headed to bankruptcy court. It went private, then public again to raise cash and created new related companies, shifting its properties from one to another to free them up from the debt cordoned off in one spot, its Caesars Entertainment Operating Co. As other companies invested in arenas and shopping districts on the Strip or casinos in newer gambling markets across the country, analysts say, Caesars was reluctant to spend.
And it was a nearly $30 billion deal, with the two firms taking on more than $10 billion of existing debt and relying on several billion more in bonds to pay for the company.Ĭaesars also missed out as competitors found fortune in Asia's casino growth while stateside gambling in Las Vegas and Atlantic City waned. But it didn't close until January 2008, several months before Lehman Brothers would go bankrupt, shaking the economy to its core. The deal to buy Caesars (then known as Harrah's) was first announced in 2006 during the heyday of Vegas tourism and development. The debt is a byproduct of its 2008 buyout by a pair of private equity firms that are endeavoring to save their investment through the bankruptcy.
It's been crippled by billions in debt it carried into the recent recession, which pinched consumer spending as jobs were lost and wage growth slowed.
