Harrah’s Deal Finally Official

After more than two months since the initial offer, Harrah’s Entertainment’s board of directors has accepted a $17.1 billion bid from Texas Pacific Group and Apollo Management to take the company private. What this means for the company’s Las Vegas Strip masterplan is anyone’s guess. Will major renovations go ahead as planned? Will pieces of the company be sold off over the next few years? Will the new owner be content to sit back and rake in big bucks for five or six years before taking the company public again? Stay tuned.

Details of the deal can be found here and here and here.

Five Hundy by Midnight 97: A Short, Germy, Festive Las Vegas Podcast

I’ve been doing some work on the Web site, including an update of the blog software, which resulted in subscribers to the RSS feed receiving a bunch of past shows. We’re sorry for the inconvenience.

This week’s Las Vegas podcast includes:

  • “What Not to Wear” opening clip
  • Riviera purchase is off
  • No official word on the Harrah’s purchase yet
  • W Hotel project appears stalled
  • New Year’s Eve in Las Vegas with the “six greatest bands of all time”
  • Tim appoints Oscar Goodman as the mayor of New York
  • McCarran airport correction
  • Listener Mark’s Las Vegas Hanukkah song
  • Blog upgrade
  • “Christmas in Las Vegas” by Richard Cheese


Five Hundy By Midnight 12/17/06 (25:39 min, 23.6 MB)

Five Hundy by Midnight 96: Yet Another Las Vegas Hotel That Will Never Be Built

This week’s Las Vegas podcast includes:

  • “We Live Here” opening clip
  • Proposal for a really tall Las Vegas Strip hotel that will never by built
  • Eschelon Place plans move ahead
  • Hard Rock buyout—Las Vegas hotel and casino not included
  • Hard Rock Hotel and Casino expansion plans
  • Station Casinos buyout
  • Durango Station approval
  • Monorail extension plans
  • No more McCarran airport smoking lounges
  • Smoking ban delay
  • Drive somewhere else
  • Las Vegas Sands online casino
  • Cavalia commercials
  • More Luxor rumors
  • Gas outage hits the Strip
  • Keno is not bad
  • “Christmas in Las Vegas” by Clint Holmes and Leslie Gore


Five Hundy By Midnight 12/10/06 (44:06 min, 40.5 MB)

Five Hundy by Midnight 95: Caesars “Era of No Construction” Ending Soon

Trippies 2006 - The Best and Worst of Las Vegas
This week’s Las Vegas podcast includes:

  • Drew Carey opening clip
  • Caesars construction plans
  • Harrah’s second bid rumors
  • Riviera bid
  • Loews buys Lake Las Vegas Hyatt
  • Tropicana/Aztar purchase delay
  • Horse lovers have an additional two weeks to see Cavalia
  • Toni Braxton extension
  • Harrods rumor
  • Vegas Today and Tomorrow
  • Luxor changes
  • Commander’s Palace relocation speculation
  • Monorail ambassadors
  • Pornslapper update
  • Listener calls
  • We’ve been nominated for The Trippies! Vote today!


Five Hundy By Midnight 12/3/06 (53:09 min, 48.8 MB)