Jana Partners urges Six Flags to explore a sale

Jana Partners urges Six Flags to explore a sale

Wed, September 23, 2026 at 4:42 PM GMT+3 2 min read

• EPR -0.66%

Six Flags Entertainment faced a new push from activist hedge fund Jana Partners on Tuesday to hire an investment bank and explore a sale, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Jana Partners cited its disappointment with Six Flags' second-quarter earnings in its call to the company's board, according to the Journal. In its most recent quarterly report, Six Flags disclosed that its net loss grew to $202.6 million, compared with $99.6 million in the same period a year earlier. As of Tuesday, the company's market capitalization stood at approximately $1.2 billion, with its shares having lost around 42% of their value over the preceding twelve months.

Six Flags has been working to turn around its business as fewer guests visit its parks. Among its restructuring moves, Six Flags divested seven parks it considered noncore to EPR Properties and shuttered an additional location in Maryland following the close of the 2025 season.

Jana Partners, founded by Barry Rosenstein and based in New York, entered Six Flags as an activist investor last autumn, building a roughly 9% stake that was worth approximately $200 million at the time, together with a group of co-investors, according to the Journal. The fund initially pushed the company to improve its marketing, enhance the experience at its parks, modernize its technology, refresh its leadership, and evaluate a potential sale.

As part of that campaign, Jana Partners teamed up with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, who has since agreed to serve as a brand ambassador for Six Flags, according to the Journal.

Jana Partners has been active on other fronts this year as well. Among its recent campaigns, the fund pressed contact-lens manufacturer Cooper Companies to oust its chief executive and weigh a sale of its main businesses, and it took a position in payments firm Fiserv earlier this year, lobbying management for measures to lift the company's lagging share price.