Orlando, FL - We recently reported that Blackstone Group was planning to sell its 50% holdings in Universal Orlando to NBCUniversal, giving them full ownership. If this takeover is completed, Universal could potentially see some difficulties in retaining rights to some of its key-themed areas.

Regardless of whether or not anyone buys Blackstone Group’s share in the park, General Electric has already announced that it will be stopping its sponsorship of ATMs throughout the park and the Jurassic Park River Adventure. The ride itself should remain unchanged, but the loss of the sponsorships means a loss of approximately $2 million that it brought to the park.

The biggest potential issue the park(s) could face though is the loss of key licensing contracts should the sale go through. If the park is acquired by new owners, Universal could lose its rights to utilize the Harry Potter theme from Warner Bros. based on the provisions of their agreement. Loss of these rights could prove quite disastrous, given the massive boost in attendance and revenue the park has seen over the past year as a direct result of the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

The park could even potentially lose rights to utilize the “Universal” brand name. The good news is that more than likely any sale which might occur will likely require maintaining the parks “intellectual property” (Universal name, rights to Harry Potter, Spiderman, etc) to make the sale viable. No further details about the sale and whether or not anyone has offered up to purchase Blackstone’s stake in the resort have surfaced at this time.