Lego to buy entertainment centres from Merlin in £200m deal
By Abigail Townsend
Date: Wednesday 24 Sep 2025
(Sharecast News) - The Lego Group is to snap up a raft of venues from Merlin Entertainments in a £200m deal, the Danish toy giant confirmed on Wednesday.
Under the terms of the cash deal, Lego will acquire 29 Legoland Discovery Centres from the owner of Madame Tussauds and the London Eye.
The indoor, city centre venues - 15 of which are in North America and seven in Europe - feature Lego building zones, various entertainment activities and retail outlets.
They attract around 5m visitors per year, the companies said in a joint statement.
Niels Christiansen, chief executive of Lego, said the Discovery Centres would be "an important addition to our global network of retail stores, and allow us to offer fans of all ages even more memorable hands-on brand and shopping experiences".
Fiona Eastwood, chief executive of Merlin, called it a "natural next step" as it allowed "Merlin to focus on driving the growth and success of Legoland Resorts alongside our other attractions worldwide".
Merlin has worked with Lego for around two decades now and currently operates 11 Legoland theme parks worldwide.
Lego, meanwhile, has around 1,100 branded stores in 54 markets.
The deal is expected to close at the end of the year.
Email this article to a friend
or share it with one of these popular networks:
You are here: news
10 Lower Thames St,
London EC3R 6EN