Takeover specialist Carl Icahn has been thwarted in his bid to buy Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, reports Bloomberg. The deal that has beaten him out is a joint bid by Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal and Los Angeles-based Colony Capital LLC. The pair will pay $45 a share for Toronto-based Fairmont.

Fairmont will be merged with the 33 Raffles Holdings Ltd. hotels Colony bought last year. That makes the total value of the deal, including debt, $5.5 billion.

Colony bought the Las Vegas Hilton in late 2003 intending to re-energize the property and extract some additional value. Its plans seem to be similar for the Canadian hotels that have been hurt by the rising Canadian dollar which has made the country more expensive for American tourists.

Colony Capital Chief Executive Officer Thomas Barrack has spent more than $12 billion since 1991 buying lodging assets, including Atlantic City casinos. on Dec. 27, reports the news service.