Burger King bought out, new CEO in place
No wonder more of us are overweight when the most ubiquitous, and probably the cheapest food is fast food...although thankfully sales are stalling although it isn't clear to me if people are necessarily eating any healthier. The #2 burger chain Miami-based Burger King with 11,450 restaurants (compared to McDonald's 30,000!) was finally acquired by the San Francisco-based buyout firm Texas Pacific Group for a much reduced price of $1.5 billion from Diageo PLC according to this Wall Street Journal story (subscription required):
A week after buying Burger King Corp., the owners of the nation's No. 2 burger chain named former Olive Garden President Bradley Blum as its chief executive.
...Mr. Blum's appointment is unusual in that he has no fast-food experience. But Lehman Brothers analyst Mitchell Speiser said Mr. Blum is credited with turning around Olive Garden, a unit of Darden Restaurants Inc. During his tenure at Olive Garden, Mr. Blum turned eating at the restaurant into a more authentic Italian dining experience, sending chefs to train in the Tuscany region of Italy and creating an extensive wine program. Average annual sales at each restaurant in the 507-unit Olive Garden chain rose to $4 million so far this year from $2.5 million in 1996. Mr. Blum left his post as president in March to become vice chairman of Darden.