Federal antitrust investigators are scrutinizing the Denver-based Alterra Mountain Company’s pending acquisition of Arapahoe Basin, one of Colorado’s last ski areas independent of corporate resort empires.
Alterra officials characterized it as a “customary” review that the U.S. Department of Justice requires for large transactions.
The investigators have asked for business data on skiers at resorts across the Rocky Mountain region from the National Ski Areas Association.
Department of Justice officials were mum. “We will have no comment on any open investigation,” federal spokeswoman Melissa Brandon said.
The DOJ has demanded financial and visitation data that the NSAA and its market research partner RRC Associates collect from ski areas. Federal investigators sent a Civil Investigative Demand, which is an administrative subpoena, and NSAA officials notified ski areas in a letter, according to the snowology website that first reported the demand.
“A filing with the DOJ was required, which is customary given the size of the transaction,” according to a statement from Alterra’s chief legal officer Karen Sanford. “We are working through the process,” the statement said, and “we cannot otherwise comment on the status of the ongoing review with the DOJ.”
NSAA officials, too, have cast the scrutiny as a routine review and on Friday declined to comment.
In the letter sent to ski areas last week, NSAA officials said DOJ investigators were looking into whether the proposed acquisition would stifle competition in the Rocky Mountain region. The letter said the feds were seeking survey data from 2023/2024 and the 2018/2019 ski season, when Alterra first introduced its Ikon Pass.
RRC officials did not respond.
In February, Alterra officials announced that they were acquiring Arapahoe Basin, which has been owned since 1997 by a Canadian Real Estate company.
Federal justice officials often look into mergers and acquisitions. The ski industry has gone through consolidation, leading to corporations controlling much of the skiing landscape in Colorado. Alterra owns the Steamboat ski resort and manages Winter Park for the City of Denver – among 17 resorts.
Alterra’s rival Vail Resorts owns five resorts in Colorado: Vail, Beaver Creek, Keystone, Breckenridge and Crested Butte — along with three dozen others. These companies rely on sales of season passes — Vail Resorts sells Epic passes while Alterra sells Ikon passes. In 1996, federal officials reviewing Vail’s deal to acquire Keystone, Breckenridge and Arapahoe Basin forced Vail to sell Arapahoe Basin to preserve adequate competition for Colorado Front Range residents to afford skiing.
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Originally Published: July 1, 2024 at 6:00 a.m.
