Four Seasons Hotels
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Four Seasons Hotels Inc. | |
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| Type | Public (TSX: FSH, NYSE: FS) |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1960 |
| Headquarters | Toronto, Canada |
| Key people | Isadore Sharp, Founder, Chairman & CEO Kathleen P. Taylor, President & COO James FitzGibbon, President Hotel Operations John Davison, Executive Vice President & CFO Randolph Weisz, Executive Vice President & General Counsel Nicholas Mutton, Executive Vice President Human Resources & Administration Barbara M. Talbott, Executive Vice President Marketing |
| Industry | hospitality, tourism |
| Website | www.fourseasons.com |
Four Seasons Hotels, Inc. is a Canadian-based international luxury hotel chain consisting of hotels and resorts aimed at the higher end of the accommodation market. It is considered among the best luxury hotel chains worldwide, according to Travel and Leisure magazine and Zagat Guide and operates numerous AAA five diamond properties.
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[edit] Business
Four Seasons is a publicly traded corporation headquartered in Toronto, Canada. Isadore (“Issy”) Sharp founded the company in 1960 and opened the first Four Seasons Hotel on Jarvis Street in downtown Toronto in 1961. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates has a substantial holding in the company along with Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia. On November 6, 2006, Bill Gates, through his holding company Cascades Investment LLC, and Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal made an offer to take the company private for US$3.4 billion (excluding debt).[1][2] On Februrary 12, 2007, the deal was finalized, Gates and Al-Waleed paying $82 per share. [3]
[edit] Operation
Four Seasons Hotels operates a residential program called the Residence Club that involves the sale of villas, penthouses and the like within select Four Seasons properties as private properties. The company currently operates 70 properties globally.
On June 19, 2002 the Canadian Opera Company announced Four Seasons Hotels as the naming donor for the COC's new Opera House, the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, located in Toronto, Canada. As of mid- 2006 Prince Al-Waleed of Saudi Arabia and Microsoft's Bill Gates have formed a partnership to buy the whole chain of luxury hotels.
[edit] Controversies
In late 2006 it was announced that the Four Seasons Hotels were planning to build a new high-end tourist resort on the Mount Hartman Estate on the Caribbean island of Grenada. This has been subject to much debate, as it is an important site for the critically endangered Grenada Dove. The Grenada Government has issued statements saying the resort can be built on the site without significantly effecting the dove. This has been questioned by BirdLife International, which, together with other organizations (among them the American Bird Conservancy) and private individuals (among them authors Graeme Gibson and Margaret Atwood), have started a campaign against the plans.[4][5][6][7][8]
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Elizabeth, Church. "Four Seasons Strikes Deal To Go Private", The Globe and Mail. Retrieved on November 6, 2006.'
- ^ http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Story.aspx?guid={42FD3677-533D-4E86-9C96-257CEE6D327D}&siteId=mktw
- ^ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/02/12/bcn4seas12.xml
- ^ BirdLife International press release. "Government of Grenada sells off National Park for Four Seasons resort". Retrieved on February 19, 2007.
- ^ BirdLife International press release. "Grenada Update: No ‘Peace on Earth’ for Rare Dove". Retrieved on February 19, 2007.
- ^ BirdLife International press release. "Grenada Update: Grenada Government defiant as dove sanctuary protest grows". Retrieved on February 20, 2007.
- ^ American Bird Conservancy press release. "Four Season Resort Spells Doom for Grenada's National Bird". Retrieved on February 20, 2007.
- ^ Grenada Dove Campaign Retrieved on 2007-02-20
