🎢Six Flags merges; XTO settles; WS champ Rangers' parade today⚾

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📣NEWS OF THE DAY:

In a deal that shakes up the U.S. theme parks business, Six Flags and Cedar Fair have agreed to merge, creating an $8 billion parks giant that the companies hope will be able to better compete with the Walt Disney Co. and Comcast’s NBCUniversal.

Westlake-based Charles Schwab this week laid off 5-6% of its workforce, about 2,000 employees, as it began to implement a previously announced plan to save at least $500 million annually.  The plan includes incurring about $400-$500 million from expenses like employee compensation, benefits and facility exit costs.

The parade celebrating the Texas Rangers World Series championship is today in Arlington at 12:15 pm. Here’s the parade route map.  

While you are reveling in Rangers magic, may we recommend Dugouts & Diamonds, an inside history of the Texas Rangers from former Star-Telegram beat writer and columnist Jim Reeves. It was released August 2022, celebrating 50 years of Texas Rangers baseball.

Two golf courses in Tarrant County have made Texas Monthly’s Guide to Best Public Golf Courses in the state. The list of 18 includes Rockwood Golf Course in Fort Worth and Grapevine Golf Course.

XTO Energy, a subsidiary of Exxon, has agreed to pay $16 million to resolve claims that it knowingly underpaid royalties owed on natural gas extracted from federal and Native American lands between 2009-2017. The U.S. Department of Justice alleged XTO failed to pay royalties on carbon dioxide and improperly deducted carbon-dioxide transportation costs and costs necessary to put extracted gas into a marketable condition. The agreement includes no determination of liability.

The Southlake City Council approved Constellation Real Estate's plan to build a business park off Ira Woods Avenue and west of Highway 114. The project includes four industrial buildings totaling more than 566,000 square feet. Construction is scheduled to begin next March and be completed later in the year at a cost of more than $38 million, according to a state filing.

A Texas federal judge dismissed a defamation lawsuit filed by a woman who says she is the daughter of Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and alleged there was a deliberate plan to portray her as "an 'extortionist' and a 'shakedown artist.'" Judge Robert W. Schroeder III tossed the defamation lawsuit by Alexandra Davis, 26, ruling she qualified as a "limited public figure" and as such had failed to make a valid claim of actual malice, a requirement under defamation. Schroeder gave Davis' lawyers the opportunity to amend their complaint and argue that the defendants had acted with actual malice in comments published in one of the two ESPN articles.

The premiere screening and a panel discussion of the Paramount+ original series, Lawmen: Bass Reeves, will take place during the Lone Star Film Festival tomorrow. The creator, executive producer, writer and showrunner is Chad Feehan. Yes, he is the son of long-time Fort Worth business leader Dan Feehan, now Chairman of First Cash.

Fort Worth has landed the USA Weightlifting 2024 North American Open Series 2 and Friendship Cup next fall. It is a first for Texas and will be August 29-September 1, 2024 in the Convention Center.

Fort Worth-based TPG expects to close in December its deal to acquire a majority interest in Crowe Healthcare Consulting. TPG intends to rebrand Crowe as Kodiak Solutions.

Read why TPG’s co-founder David Bonderman is being honored Nov. 7 as the Fort Worth Business Executive of the Year.

Cook Children’s Paul Thornton, M.D., medical director of Diabetes and Endocrinology, is the recipient of the 2023 Fort Worth Sister Cities Global Impact Award for his lifelong work in hyperinsulinism, a potentially devastating, rare genetic disease. 

👟PEOPLE ON THE MOVE:

• RBC Wealth Management: Names Courtney Duphorne as North Texas Director

• Greater Bentonville Area Chamber of Commerce: Hires Brandom Gengelbach as president and CEO, a position he previously held in Fort Worth

• Quorum Architects: Adds Amanda Robinson as Interior Design Project Manager

• Fort Worth Report: Hires Sonya Wierzowiecki as Director of Development

• Brackett & Ellis: Adds attorney Alyssa J. Marquette

✂️SNIPPETS FROM AROUND THE WEB:

• U.S. consumers keep spending despite high prices and their own gloomy outlook. Can it last?

• The re-pricing of the bond market will drive a 40% decline in the price of America's office buildings by the end of next year, research firm says.

• Holiday shoppers are poised to spend moderately this holiday season says Gallup survey.

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