Blackstone buys 4 Lego theme parks

COPENHAGEN -- Danish toy maker Lego Co. said yesterday that it will sell four Legoland amusement parks to the Blackstone Group, a US-based private equity company, for $456 million.

Blackstone plans to fold Legoland Parks into its newly acquired subsidiary Merlin Entertainments Group, which already operates 28 attractions in eight European countries under the Sea Life, Dungeons, and Earth Explorer brands, to form the second-largest visitor attraction business in Europe with some 12 million visitors per year.

Lego's four theme parks are located in Carlsbad, Calif.; Billund, Denmark; Windsor, England, and Gunzburg, Germany.