Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince Targets Vail Resorts for Park City Sale

“The current management team does not sell properties.”

That’s Matthew Prince’s prediction for Vail Resorts. The Cloudflare billionaire isn’t just watching the stock price stagnate; he’s betting on a collapse.

Prince, Utah’s wealthiest person, wants to buy Park City Mountain Resort. He wants it badly enough to break the company’s 40-year habit of never selling a single ski area.

He’s not asking nicely. He’s telling shareholders to wake up.

Prince showed a graphic of Vail’s stock chart. It looks identical to 2016. It’s been flatlining while the rest of the market moved on.

Prince argues Vail is a “bad capital allocator.” The company owns 42 ski areas across the U.S., Canada, Austria, and Australia. Its market capitalization sits around $5 billion. But Prince claims the actual value of those hills is significantly higher.

He wants Vail to pivot. He wants an “asset-light” franchise model. Instead of owning the dirt and the lifts, Vail would just license its Epic Pass to other resorts. Keep the brand. Drop the debt.

“You don’t need to own the resorts in order to have the resorts take your pass,” Prince said.

The logic is simple for a tech billionaire. Complex for a legacy ski operator.

Park City is Vail’s flagship. It’s the largest ski area in the nation. Prince grew up there. He worked as a ski instructor in the mid-1990s. He knows the snow. He knows the locals. Now he knows the balance sheet is broken.

Vail’s stock is down more than 60% from its 2021 peak. It trades around $137. Prince says shareholders are starting to notice. They’re realizing they’re stuck with a company that hoards assets instead of returning value.

“Current management has not ever gotten rid of a resort,” Prince said. “But I’m not sure that the current management is long for this world.”

He’s referring to CEO Rob Katz and the team that’s held the fort since the merger days. Prince thinks they’re about to get pushed out. Not by a friendly takeover. By hostile forces.

Activist investors are calling him. These are the guys with big pockets who buy companies with debt, strip them for parts, and sell the trophies. Prince isn’t trying to buy Vail Resorts itself. He just wants Park City. But the threat of a hostile takeover is looming.

If Vail doesn’t sell Park City voluntarily, the barbarians might take it by force. Whistler-Blackcomb could be next. That’s the big trophy. The one that pays for the rest.

Prince says he’s hopeful shareholders will realize this themselves. They might not need a push. But he’s ready to push if they don’t move fast enough.

The short version: Vail owns too much stuff. It’s worth less on the stock market than the sum of its parts. Prince wants to fix that by selling the crown jewel.

Locals in Park City have watched Vail manage their mountain for decades. They know the tax implications. They know the infrastructure costs. They know the difference between owning the hill and just using the pass.

Prince thinks the market is inefficient. He thinks Vail is hiding value. He thinks the stock price is a lie.

“Do you think the current management team is going to be around for long?” he asked.

The answer depends on whether shareholders believe him. Or whether they just keep waiting for the stock to bounce back to 2021 levels. It’s not happening. Not without a change.

Prince is betting on change. He’s betting that Park City is worth more on its own than it is as part of a bloated conglomerate.

It’s a bold move. Selling the biggest asset in the portfolio. Breaking the “never sell” rule.

Vail hasn’t officially responded to Prince’s public campaign. They haven’t confirmed or denied the talks. They’re staying quiet.

But Prince says the pressure is building. The stock is limping. The management is aging. And the activists are gathering.

Something is gonna break. Prince just needs to decide when.