[7][8] The next year, the company bought the neighboring Colorado Belle casino from Advanced Patent Technology and John Fulton for $4 million.

[9][10][11] The company planned to move the unprofitable Colorado Belle to make room for an expansion of the Edgewater.

[12] On March 20, 1995, Circus Circus Enterprises announced that it had agreed to acquire Gold Strike Resorts, a closely held budget casino owner and operator based in Jean, Nevada, in a deal valued at more than $600 million.

[14] The acquisition did not include the original Gold Strike near Boulder City, because the owners wanted to pass it on to their children.

Despite the implosion, parts of the old resort still stood, due to the building not falling into its footprint, but toppling into its parking lot.

On June 4, 2004, one of Mandalay's largest competitors, MGM Mirage, announced a bid to acquire it for $68 per share plus assumption of debt.

[19] The ensuing negotiations between the two companies included at one point an announcement that the Mandalay board was rejecting the offer because of antitrust concerns.

[citation needed] On June 15, 2004, however, both companies' boards approved a revised offer of $71 per share.

[21][22] MGM executives were confident that antitrust regulators would not require the sale of any of the two companies' properties.

[24] After some vacillation about which property to sell,[25] Mandalay accepted a $525-million offer for its interest in MotorCity from Marian Ilitch, the casino's second largest shareholder.