Mon Apr 02, 2012 10:35 pm
I always thought of if kind of like a Franchise.
They're run independently, because the franchisee doesn't want to do it themselves, but still want some money, so the franchisee ultimately sets them some rules to continue using their brand name and get royalties for it. Now because the parent has no real say in what they do with their company assuming they follow the rules, and sit their and inject money when they see fit, the two companies, park and Studios have to operate as individuals. And the only way Studio's can keep up is by charging high prices to the park.
If say Studio's wanted to expand, and Merlin didn't want to invest more money, they would have to raise that money themselves, which is more than possible because they exist as a separate entity but to do that they'd have to make that money by either branching out or raising their prices. But the problem here is that one of those rules set by the parent company, probably said they couldn't expand.
Obviously this is all theoretically, and not exactly how it works, because the park obviously isn't a franchise but that's just how I'd assume it works roughly....