Parent Company of Norwegian Growing its Stable

It looks like Apollo Management is going to buy Regent Seven Seas with the purchase to take place some time in the first quarter of 2008. Apollo is already a 50% owner in Norwegian and has ownership of Oceania. This type of consolidation is not uncommon in the cruise industry. Carnival Corporation owns many of the the big name brands that most are familiar with in cruising, including but not limited to Holland America, Princess, and Cunard Line. Royal Caribbean also owns Celebrity and the new Azmara Cruise Line. The nice thing about the cruise industry is that consolidation like this has not meant changes to the performance or expectations of the individual cruise lines. Within the Carnival collection of cruise lines, each has held its own on the type of product they deliver so well that many people don't even know that they are all owned by the same company. I think this is a good thing unlike in other industries when a buyout happens the bought out company ends up re branding, leaving us consumers with one less option. Now for these industries there are probably reasons beyond the consumer knowledge on why this happens, but its nice to know that in the cruise industry that has is not the case.