Big Investors Get Sick on Six Flags Bankruptcy

Like riding a roller coaster on a stomach full of corn dogs, the bankruptcy of Six Flags(SIXF) has no doubt nauseated a group of big-time investors.

There's Dan Snyder, owner of the Washington Redskins, who won control of Six Flags back in 2005 and now serves as its chairman; and Bill Gates, who owns more than 11% of the company's stock through his personal investment vehicle, Cascade Investment. Then there's billionaire hedge-fund manager James Simons, whose famed Renaissance Technologies owns 5.5%.

Soon enough, however, the past tense will likely be necessary: owned. After Six Flags emerges from Chapter 11, which it filed for on Saturday, creditors will likely seize ownership of the entire company.

Despite record revenue and attendance in 2008, Six Flags hasn't earned a profit in a decade, and the bankruptcy culminates a long-term bet that went sour for the duo of Snyder and Gates, especially.

Gates' Cascade first bought into Six Flags in the summer of 2002, acquiring about 8 million shares when the stock traded between about $12 and $18. (Even if Cascade bought at the low end of that range, the shares cost just shy of $100 million.) Cascade later increased its stake to 10.2 million shares.

Snyder didn't come in until 2004, when he reportedly spent about $34 million on 8.8 million shares. (Though his stake is now 5.6 million shares, or nearly 6%.)

Soon, both Snyder and Gates went from passive to active investors, filing SEC documents expressing their dissatisfaction and agitating for changes in the company's strategy, and in its boardroom.