“Hard Rock is a very strong brand,” said Jeffrey Harwood, an analyst with Oriel Securities in London.
It retained the Hard Rock Casino in London and plans to change it to the Rank Gaming brand. Rank said the sale freed it to concentrate on gambling. The deal does not include Hard Rock’s Las Vegas casino, however, which is owned by Morgans Hotel Group, or Morgans’ rights to Hard Rock intellectual property in Australia, Brazil, Israel, Venezuela and many areas of the United States west of the Mississippi River, a Morgans official said. The tribe also will acquire what is said to be the world’s largest collection of rock memorabilia, some 70,000 pieces including Jimi Hendrix’s Flying V guitar, one of Madonna’s bustiers, a pair of Elton John’s high-heeled shoes and guitars formerly owned by Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton and Chuck Berry. They now have the ability to expand their gaming interests nationally by partnering with a well-known brand, experts said.
More recently, they had partnered with Hard Rock in successful hotel, gambling and entertainment complexes in Tampa and Hollywood in tourist-friendly Florida. tribe to get into the gambling business in 1979.
