Acquisitions

The history of Wendy's, large fast food chain, ranges back to 1969 when Dave Thomas opened his first restaurant in Columbus, naming it after his little daughter Melinda Lou who was also known as Wendy. As the time passed by, Wendy's become one of the most eminent fast food chains, reaching number three position, backing up its major burger competitors – McDonalds and Burger King. As some more the time passed by, Wendy's lost its key person Thomas - who died in 2002 - and it seemed that people at Wendy's were running out of good ideas that could be turned into revenues. Instead, they lost a significant amount of customers. Moreover, proceeding economic crisis forced many Americans to revalue their expenditures – no more careless eating out, it's time to activate cooker once again. At this point, it was clear that something drastic needs to be done at Wendy's.Well, the resolution is drastic indeed, but it's probably not that kind of solution many (especially Thomas family) were hoping for. Nelson Peltz finally achieved success – he had to swallow at least two categorical “No, thanks” to his previous offers. The third one did not fall flat so the world got wind of $2.34 all-stock deal. The owner of Triarc Companies which operates Arby's restaurants, significant shareholder of companies such as Cadbury Schweppes PLC, H.J. Heinz Co. or Tiffany & Co. previously owned 9.8 percent of Wendy's International Inc. stock through his Trian Fund, now became a full-time owner.Sad, sad, sad. That's what many Wendy's fans are saying nowadays. They expect cardinal changes and are pretty much sure that Wendy's will never be the same. And some are dare enough to say – old Thomas is for sure rolling over in his grave. Anyway, all I can add to the “sad, sad, sad” part is that I can remember my birthday “party” back then. I was freshly twenty two years old and I was in American Mid West, far far far away from home, whole family and closest friends, sitting sadly over Wendy's chocolate Frosty dessert.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080424/ap_on_bi_ge/wendy_s;_ylt=AiCH8L8jcvpBmLbyg7twOQGs0NUE

by Kamila Moravcikova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

PocketNews is a new real-time news broadcaster delivering the latest and hottest news right to your pocket ! With global clients who want to be kept up to date, PocketNews is everyone's way of keeping in touch with the World.<br><br><font size=2>These news are brought to you by CantellTV, its technology partner SigEx Telecom and its founder Chris Cantell. CantellTV is the fastest growing provider of digital broadcasting coupled with enhanced communications, allowing people to easily control, view, upload and share digital content through proprietary interface. CantellTV has relationships with a growing network of international clients delivering millions of videos per day with more than 50,000 new videos uploaded and 200 hours of new TV shows broadcasted daily to a wide range of viewers, from 5 to 7 year olds of LiveCartoons; to 16 to 24 year old active social users of MyJumps; to fortune 50 corporate clients utilizing enhanced broadcasting services. CantellTV is committed to delivering infinite choices to your world of entertainment at the tip of your fingers. Chris Cantell retains consulting arrangements with several pre-IPO companies.</font><br>
edited by Tatiana Kucharikova

Labels: Acquisitions, CantellTV, Chris Cantell, Christopher Cantell, digital broadcasting, SigEx Foundry, SigEx Telecom