COLUMBUS, OHIO - After at least two rejections, billionaire Nelson Peltz has landed Wendy's in a $2.3 billion deal that would add the 6,600-store hamburger chain to his ownership of 3,700 Arby's.
The investor known for agitating corporations to boost their stock prices now must figure out how to make both brands profitable while the economy slumps and more Americans are eating at home.
Atlanta-based Triarc Companies Inc., owned by Peltz, said Thursday that it will pay about $2.34 billion in an all-stock deal for the nation's third-largest hamburger chain, begun in 1969 by Dave Thomas. Wendy's had rejected at least two buyout offers from Triarc.
Pam Thomas Farber said the family was devastated by the news. If her father were alive to hear of the buyout, "he would not be amused," she said.
Triarc will pay about $26.78 per share for the company, which has about 87 million shares outstanding.
Under the terms of the deal, expected to close in the second half of the year, Wendy's shareholders will receive 4.25 shares of Triarc Class A stock for each share of Wendy's stock. Triarc said its shareholders will have to approve a charter amendment in which each share of its Class B stock will be converted into Class A stock.
Peltz has pushed for change at Wendy's -- including the spinoff of the Tim Hortons coffee-and-doughnut chain and cutting corporate expenses -- since 2005 to increase the company's stock price. His Trian Fund and his allies own 9.8 percent of Wendy's International Inc. stock.
Peltz has used a similar tactic at other companies where Trian has become a significant investor, such as Cadbury Schweppes PLC and H.J. Heinz Co.
