A Whale of a Sale

Free Shamu? It won't be cheap.

InBev, the Belgian-Brazilian brewing giant that is acquiring Anheuser-Busch for $52 billion, has said that it plans to sell non-strategic assets when it completes the deal by year-end. It has not identified those assets, but they are widely expected to include Anheuser's 10 theme parks, like the home of the famous Orca whale, Sea World

The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has already raised its hand, saying that it sent a letter to the chief executive of InBev, Carlos Brito, offering to buy the " marine mammal parks and their captive animals, thanks to a very generous PETA donor."

PETA's plan involves "releasing the captive animals to transitional coastal sanctuaries and replacing the live-animal exhibits with state-of-the-art virtual-reality exhibits," Kristie Phelps, assistant director of PETA's animals in entertainment campaign wrote in the letter.

The theme-park unit has been valued at about $4 billion to $5 billion, so PETA's donor must be very generous indeed.

A PETA spokeswoman told the Orlando Sentinel: "We don't know how high this donor will go, but he is serious. Whales, dolphins and other marine life are very important to him."

Other possible bidders, for whom whales are not quite as important, are expected to include private-equity giant Blackstone Group, which owns Madame Tussauds and Legoland, and Walt Disney.

And a viritual animal-theme park? "C'mon, it makes more sense than Dollywood!" a post on PETA's blog says.

(Above, Shamu, up for bid. Photo by Bill Bachmann / Danita Delimont Agency.)