That growth came the next year, with its Williamsburg location added Italy to its culture roster plus add two whole parks.

[9] Busch acquired a tenth park, Water Country USA in 1992, which was near its existing Williamsburg location.

[10] Busch Entertainment announced in November 1992 its joint venture with Grand Tibidabo to build Tibi Gardens in Salou, Catalonia, Spain with other adjunct developments.

[11] By the park's May 1, 1995, opening, Grand Tibidabo was replaced by Tussauds Group, Fecsa and La Caixa as partners and renamed Port Aventura.

[6] In 1999, close to 200 acres of rural land was purchased by Busch Gardens Tampa so that animals could be relocated during construction of a new hotel, which ended up never being built.

However, the Great Recession prompted both Nakheel and Busch Entertainment to suspend development indefinitely in February 2009.

[20][21] At the time, InBev was thought to be considering selling the parks to the highest bidder, or spinning off Busch Entertainment as an independent company.

[19] It was suggested at one point that NBCUniversal was interested in purchasing Busch Entertainment, and folding it into the Universal Studios Theme Parks chain, but no official bid for the company surfaced.

[23] Other cited reasons for an apparent reluctance to sell off the company included still-volatile credit markets and receipt of initial bids that were lower than expected.

[24] The Blackstone Group already owned a partnership in Universal Orlando Resort, and a significant interest in Merlin Entertainments, which operates attractions and theme parks such as Madame Tussauds and Legoland.

[24] On October 7, 2009, the discussions came to fruition as Anheuser-Busch InBev announced plans to sell Busch Entertainment Corporation to the Blackstone Group in a deal worth approximately US$2.7 billion.

[25][26] As part of the deal, Blackstone maintained the current management team from Busch Entertainment and operate it as a separate entity.

[25] Further, Anheuser-Busch would sign a sponsorship agreement with the company, thus allowing the two Busch Gardens parks to keep their current names and promotions, including the "Here's to the Heroes" military appreciation program.

[25] In announcing the deal, Busch Entertainment President Jim Atchison said that Blackstone's acquisition brings "an awful lot of strategic vision for us.

Helmstadter indicated in September 2011 that the TV and animation divisions had several items on their slate and the three entertainment units would be at MIPCOM and Kidscreen Summit 2012 looking for projects.

[29] Sleepy Giant Entertainment and SeaWorld Parks released Turtle Trek, its first free mobile app based on the ride of the same name.

[32][27] In September 2013, SeaWorld Kids media unit and Little Airplane Productions agreed to develop a new conservation and animal themed TV show for preschoolers.

[34] Following CNN's broadcast of the documentary Blackfish, which criticized the company's handling of killer whale exhibits, SeaWorld's profits went into a steep decline and its share values plummeted.

[35] On December 11, 2014, SeaWorld announced that chief executive Jim Atchison would resign, with an interim successor replacing him on January 15, 2015.

[35] The company and Village Roadshow in 2014 signed a development agreement for additional Asian theme parks.

[39][40][41][42] The board of directors appointed Joel Manby as president and chief executive officer starting April 7, 2015.

Two new directors were appointed to the company board that held positions at fully integrated theme park resorts.

[51] In August 2018, the company extended its licensing agreement for Rudolph and Friends with Character Arts to appear at their parks' holiday events until January 2024.

[53] Seaworld Entertainment bought back 5.6 million shares from an affiliate of Pacific Alliance Group in late May 2019.