Wendy's has spent much of the past two years losing customers, and now its biggest shareholder wants to take it off the market entirely. The chain built on Dave Thomas' square hamburgers has cycled through chief executives and trimmed its restaurant base while rivals overhauled their menus. Trian's answer is a buyout. The group it leads offered $7.35 a share in cash, roughly $1.4 billion, arguing the company is "at a critical juncture" and would be better off private, the Wall Street Journal reported, with the stock down about 70 percent over five years. The bidding group also includes BlueFive Capital, Sixth Street Partners and Flynn Group, one of the chain's largest franchisees, and the offer lands a week before Wendy's reports third-quarter results on November 5, CNBC reported.
Peltz and Wendy's have a long history, and this bid did not come out of thin air. The groundwork was laid in February, when Trian amended its ownership filing and Wendy's replied that its board would carefully evaluate any proposal Trian submitted while pressing ahead with its Project Fresh turnaround, according to the company's statement at the time. A franchisee in the buyer group is notable, because most Wendy's restaurants are run by operators rather than the company.
The turnaround has yet to show up in the numbers. Wendy's named Bob Wright, a former operations chief at the chain, as CEO in May, and its chairman said he had strong franchisee support, the company said in announcing the hire. By August, the new team had withdrawn its 2026 outlook; U.S. traffic fell 12.5 percent in the second quarter, and 289 U.S. restaurants closed in the first half of the year, according to the company's earnings call. Management promised a full strategic plan by its next update.