It’s now official, we no longer have to wait through rumor filled days, Busch Entertainment Corporation has been sold to Blackstone Group for $2.3B in cash. It appears Blackstone will have BEC operate as it’s own entity rather than merge it with one of it’s other companies. I’ll be looking for updates all day and will post them here as they come in.
Here is the official announcement: RELEASE
UPDATE:
InBev has the right to participate in $400M of the initial return on investment. My guess is that this is their “pour rights” insurance. They won’t collect this money unless the lose exclusivity in terms of beers in the parks. Not only is the exclusivity good for sales, but it also good for marketing as park goers are a captive audience. This may also be the final price decided on for Blackstone to have the right to use the Busch name and keep other AB items in the parks.

UPDATE:
Although the company is currently known as Busch Entertainment Corporation, the name may eventually be changed (officially or unofficially) to “Worlds of Discovery”, according to Jim Atchison.

UPDATE:
This video does not mention the sale, but it was posted on YouTube today, the title Busch Entertainment Corporation is also absent from this video.