Wynn reveling in ‘delicious’ choices he has for future

David Strow

Friday, March 24, 2000 | 11:04 a.m.

In his first public comments since Mirage Resorts Inc. agreed to merge with MGM Grand Inc., Steve Wynn confirmed he's on his way out at Mirage -- but said he's reveling in the "delicious" choices he has for the future.

At the company's annual shareholder meeting Thursday afternoon at the Bellagio resort, Wynn said he is "retiring as chairman and CEO of Mirage Resorts," adding that he would have no position on the combined company's board. But the casino mogul remained silent on precisely what his next move might be, despite repeated questions by shareholders.

"I feel wonderful about the future," Wynn said. "I'm going to make up my mind what to do when my tour of duty (at Mirage) officially ends. I relish that choice, as anyone would."

Still, Wynn didn't sound like a man ready to bail out on Las Vegas.

"I like building stuff," Wynn said. "I like making people say, 'Wow.' I get a charge out of that because it's just plain fun. It's also profitable as hell.

"I'll probably be doing what I've been doing for the last 27 years."

When asked if that meant building again on the Strip, Wynn said, "I'm not leaving. I'm not going anywhere."

Wynn will gross slightly more than $500 million, pre-tax, from the sale of his Mirage stock to MGM Grand. Wynn will also receive a "parachute payment" of $11.25 million upon leaving the company.

Shareholders will vote on the $6.7 billion merger at a separate meeting, though a date for this meeting has not been set.

Wynn was upbeat and relaxed, and expressed his gratitude to MGM Grand controlling shareholder Kirk Kerkorian for enabling him to realize the cash value of his Mirage investment.

"I don't think I'm ever going to be a public company (official) again, not as long as I feel the way I do about the public markets," Wynn said.

Those shareholders attending Thursday's meeting didn't seem to share the market's recent cynicism over Mirage. Several shareholders took the mike to praise Wynn's tenure at Mirage, and dozens of shareholders mobbed Wynn at the meeting's conclusion to ask for autographs.

"You made an awful lot of money for a lot of people here today, and we owe you a big round of applause," one shareholder told Wynn, drawing a long ovation from the audience.

One couple that wouldn't argue was Dee and Sal Amaro of Las Vegas. The two have held shares in Mirage for more than 30 years, and expressed regret that they would have to cash their shares out.

"I'm very happy with my Mirage stock, because I've been able to do a lot with it," Dee Amaro said. "Since we've been buying stock, we've been able to buy our home and pay for other investments with it."

When asked if $21 was a fair offer, Amaro said she didn't believe so, "because of the hotels, and what (Wynn's) done."

"But it's a lot better than $17," she added. "We can take the money and invest it in MGM."

In contrast his praise of Mirage's long-time investors, Wynn launched a series of verbal broadsides at short-term investors, whom he accused of failing to recognize the true value of his company. Share price, he argued, was no longer a reliable measure of a company's value or performance.

'These hotels are there forever," Wynn said. "What's a quarter or two or a season or two in the long-range scheme of things, unless you're buying a stock for 90 days? How could we ever satisfy anyone that was a short-term investor with businesses that are built to to last forever?

"Stock price is driven by demand. Demand (today) is driven by factors beyond my understanding."

A frustrated Wynn then pointed to the March 2 initial public offering of Palm Inc., maker of the popular "Palm Pilot" line of handheld computers. Palm's IPO price was $38, but its shares soared as high as $165 on its first day of trading before settling down at $95.06. At that price, Wynn said, Palm had a higher market value than General Motors.

"And you're asking me if there's anything I could have done (to boost share prices)?" Wynn said.

Still, Wynn accepted blame for some of the company's troubles. When Beau Rivage opened in Biloxi, Miss., last year, Wynn said Mirage "misjudged the market" by pricing its amenities out of the reach of Biloxi locals. This worked on weekends, Wynn said, but those gains were wiped out on weekdays.

"We went down there and we weren't quite as humble as we should've been, and that's my fault," Wynn said.

Though he praised MGM Grand, he noted the companies do have decidedly different visions. While noting Kerkorian was a proponent of consolidation, Wynn said he strongly believed that success was determined property-by-property, and was controlled primarily by the people working in each property.

"Is there something overwhelmingly powerful about consolidation?" Wynn said. "No. (Success) has to do with the strength of the staff at each hotel, separately. You can't consolidate people, you can only consolidate numbers."

In one of the meeting's more surprising moments, Wynn even seemed to take a shot at MGM Grand. When a shareholder asked how MGM Grand's portfolio stacked up to that of Mirage, Wynn invited the man to take a walk through the MGM Grand and draw his own conclusions.

The remark drew gales of laughter and applause from the audience. Wynn quickly clarified himself, saying he didn't mean to insult MGM Grand -- he was simply trying to say the two companies were different.

"I did not mean it as a disparaging remark," Wynn said. "They aspire to appeal to the masses. We aspire to a higher level of service and we get a higher price.

"They don't polish the apple quite as closely as we do. But there's a strong demand for a product like that. We aspire to a different standard."