Aspen Skiing Co. and private-equity firm KSL Capital
Partners will acquire California's Mammoth Resorts from an entity
majority-owned by Starwood Capital Group.
Aspen Skiing and KSL earlier this week formed a joint venture
to acquire Intrawest.
With the acquisition, the new company will buy Mammoth
Mountain, June Mountain, Snow Summit and Bear Mountain. The price of the
acquisition wasn't disclosed. The deal is expected to close by September.
With Mammoth in tow, the new venture will challenge Vail
Resorts, which has 12 North American mountains and another in Australia.
Between Mammoth and Intrawest and current holdings, the venture will oversee 12
resorts, including KSL's Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows near Lake Tahoe and
Intrawest's Steamboat in Colorado, Stratton in Vermont and Tremblant in Quebec.
The new venture will not include Aspen's three Colorado resorts, according to
Aspen spokesman Jeff Hanle.