Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to seek out covert items at fast food chains around the country.
Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to seek out covert items at fast food chains around the country.
"I know I didn't chow down on a spoon!" declared John Manley, who recently discovered that an eating utensil was the source of his two years of ill health, coughing, vomiting and pain.
I want to believe that this earnings-fueled stock rally of the past few weeks is for real. But when you look more closely at corporate results, you have to scratch your head and wonder -- just like the old lady in the famous Wendy's commercials from the 1980s -- where's the beef?
What happens when a company's eponymous founder and celebrity spokesman dies?
Shareholders of Wendy's and Triarc approved a $2.34 billion deal on Monday that will make the nation's No. 3 hamburger chain a part of billionaire investor Nelson Peltz's empire
What happens when a company's eponymous founder and celebrity spokesman transitions out of the business?
The job description for a corporate raider is simple: Buy stock in mismanaged companies, and then growl at them until management pays you a lot of money to go away - or you make management go away. Brand reinvention is usually not part of a raider's attack plan, unless you're Nelson Peltz. Peltz, 66, spends hours wandering supermarkets, malls, and fast-food restaurants with his ten children (ages 5 to 45) to get investing ideas, which he later chews over with partners Peter May and son-in-law Ed Garden, who together run Trian, a hedge fund founded in 2005. According to people familiar with the fund, Trian now has more than $5 billion under management, including investments in companies such as Heinz, Wendy's, and Tiffany.
I wrote an 80s-themed column earlier this week about the return of hostile takeovers. Today, you get the sequel about billionaire activist shareholders making a fuss. Call it Revenge of the Rich Guy.
Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to seek out covert items at fast food chains around the country.
Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to seek out covert items at fast food chains around the country.
"I know I didn't chow down on a spoon!" declared John Manley, who recently discovered that an eating utensil was the source of his two years of ill health, coughing, vomiting and pain.
I want to believe that this earnings-fueled stock rally of the past few weeks is for real. But when you look more closely at corporate results, you have to scratch your head and wonder -- just like the old lady in the famous Wendy's commercials from the 1980s -- where's the beef?
What happens when a company's eponymous founder and celebrity spokesman dies?
Shareholders of Wendy's and Triarc approved a $2.34 billion deal on Monday that will make the nation's No. 3 hamburger chain a part of billionaire investor Nelson Peltz's empire
What happens when a company's eponymous founder and celebrity spokesman transitions out of the business?
The job description for a corporate raider is simple: Buy stock in mismanaged companies, and then growl at them until management pays you a lot of money to go away - or you make management go away. Brand reinvention is usually not part of a raider's attack plan, unless you're Nelson Peltz. Peltz, 66, spends hours wandering supermarkets, malls, and fast-food restaurants with his ten children (ages 5 to 45) to get investing ideas, which he later chews over with partners Peter May and son-in-law Ed Garden, who together run Trian, a hedge fund founded in 2005. According to people familiar with the fund, Trian now has more than $5 billion under management, including investments in companies such as Heinz, Wendy's, and Tiffany.
I wrote an 80s-themed column earlier this week about the return of hostile takeovers. Today, you get the sequel about billionaire activist shareholders making a fuss. Call it Revenge of the Rich Guy.
Stocks rallied and bonds slumped Thursday as investors welcomed a stronger dollar, weaker oil prices and upbeat earnings from Ford Motor and Apple.
After two past rejections, the owner of Arby's shaved roast beef sandwich restaurants is buying Wendy's, the fast-food chain famous for its made-to-order square hamburgers and chocolate Frosty dessert, for around $2 billion
Stock futures fell early Thursday as investor caution held sway amid a mixed bag of corporate results.
Shareholders have a lot to be unhappy with this proxy season. After all, they've lost billions of dollars due to the weakening economy and the mortgage meltdown.
U.S. stock futures were little changed Monday after the previous session's rally as investors awaited a batch of economic reports due out this week.
Stocks gained ground at the start of trading Tuesday as investors awaited the Federal Reserve's decision on interest rates.
The owner of 134 Wendy's restaurants wants to make a bid for the nation's No. 3 hamburger chain with two private-equity firms.
Wendy's International Inc. announced on Tuesday it has reached a deal with billionaire investor Nelson Peltz to give his companies access to Wendy's books as they consider making an offer to buy the No. 3 hamburger chain.
Stocks looked set to remain in recovery mode Tuesday following strong results from General Motors and ahead of a barrage of economic reports.
Shares of Wendy's International Inc. rose 4.7 percent on Tuesday, a day after billionaire investor Nelson Peltz said his restaurant company, Triarc Cos. Inc., could offer up to $41 a share for the hamburger chain.
U.S. stocks flexed their muscles at Tuesday's open on the strength on GM's earnings and some benign economic reports.
Billionaire investor and major Wendy's International Inc. shareholder Nelson Peltz said Monday that his restaurant company, Triarc Cos. Inc., would be prepared to offer between $37 and $41 a share for the struggling hamburger chain.
Fast-food chain Wendy's International, which recently put itself up for sale, reported a quarterly profit Thursday that met analysts' estimates as it worked on improving its image with new products and advertising.
Trian Fund Management, owned by billionaire investor Nelson Peltz, said Tuesday that its Triarc Cos. Inc. would be a "natural, strategic buyer" for Wendy's International Inc., which has said it will explore selling itself.
Wall Street began a shortened session Tuesday with some modest gains, as investors considered some acquisition news.
Hamburger chain Wendy's International slashed its 2007 earnings forecast Monday and said it would explore a possible sale of the company instead of other restructuring options.
Stocks edged higher at Monday's open on strength in Asian markets and merger speculation in a session with no major economic reports on tap.
In March 2006 power investor Nelson Peltz invited Heinz CEO Bill Johnson to dinner at Morton's Steakhouse in West Palm Beach. After the two men sat down, Peltz stunned Johnson with an in-your-face ...
In March 2006 power investor Nelson Peltz invited Heinz CEO Bill Johnson to dinner at Morton's Steakhouse in West Palm Beach. After the two men sat down, Peltz stunned Johnson with an in-your-face barrage, announcing that "I'm going on your board!"
Preliminary same-store sales at Wendy's grew 6.1 percent at its U.S. stores in December, and 3.1 percent for the fourth quarter overall, the company said Friday.
In New York City's latest effort to stamp out transfat, national chains may be better suited to adapt than the friendly neighborhood restaurant, says one industry representative.
It's payday at a Wendy's in Wichita, but the teens who flip the burgers aren't lining up to get their checks from the manager's office. In fact, they aren't getting checks at all. Instead, sometime...
A missing boy whose mother killed herself after being named the prime suspect in his disappearance may still be alive, law enforcement officials said Wednesday.
Smile! Candid camera could soon be coming to the fast-food drive-thru near you.
Most accounts of Dunkin' Donuts' aspirations to blanket the nation with its pink-and-orange logo focus on its battle with established powerhouses like Starbucks and McDonald's.
Fastfood chain Arby's is unveiling a new line of ads that mocks the quality of chicken served by rivals McDonald's and Wendy's, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
In a move that will seriously reduce the amount of trans fat in its food, Wendy's said Thursday it will be cooking its french fries and breaded chicken items in non-hydrogenated oil.
Teflon stocks. China's President Hu gets heckled and the FDA says medical marijuana doesn't work. It's all connected baby. What a way to start a weekend!
What We Said
Famed corporate raider Carl Icahn made his fortune forcing change at public companies, but his highly publicized campaign against Time Warner fell flat. But another well-known raider, Nelson Peltz, just won a big victory in his battle with Wendy's.
Happy Friday folks ...
Wendy's responded to pressure from activist investor Nelson Peltz by adding three new directors nominated from Peltz's investment fund.
Any day now, barring unforeseen calamity, Burger King will join the ranks of publicly traded corporations. It marks a first for the home of the Whopper, which since its founding in 1954 has been a ...
As natives of Mexico City, we have always been very proud of the food and spices of our country. Mexico has some of the best cuisine in the world, although many dishes are little known in the U.S. ...
It's been a tough stock-picking environment for investors so far this year. The major indexes all finished the first half of 2005 slightly in the red.
Wendy's International may come to remember 2005 as the year of the "chili finger."
Wendy's restaurants are giving away free Frostys frozen desserts this weekend as a thank you to customers who supported the burger chain following an embarrassing incident in California where a women allegedly planted a severed finger in a bowl of chili.
An additional tax on fast-food may be a distasteful idea for whopper-lovers but at least one major city in the Midwest is seriously considering such a proposal.
Wendy's International said Thursday its first-quarter profit slipped to $51.3 million from $52.8 million in the year-ago period, largely due to weak sales following a woman's claim that she found a severed finger in a bowl of chili at one of its restaurants in California.
Police said Friday that a woman lied about finding a human finger in a bowl of chili last month at a Wendy's restaurant here.
When toymaker Mattel announced the shocking Barbie-Ken split two days before last year's Valentine's Day, was it a savvy marketing ploy or a big branding bungle?
LET'S ASSUME THAT the most sanguine projections are all true and that hiring will take off (at last) in the fourth quarter. A pressing question if you're intent on boosting your headcount: What do ...
Stocks slumped across-the-board Wednesday, as worries about earnings and oil prices sparked the biggest blue-chip sell-off in nearly seven weeks.
In the end, a motley crew of playful chocolate candies beat out a jolly tiger named Tony and a hyperkinetic bunny to take top honors as the advertising icon consumers love most.
A quick note from the road. It is astonishing that although the scenery has changed, from beaches to mountains to deserts, so much of American life remains the same.
The room is white--pristinely white. We're inside the sensory panel room at Wendy's headquarters in Dublin, Ohio, where employees of the $7.3 billion fast-food giant get to taste-test new products ...
So much for the days when we were far from the madding cows. The news, on Dec. 23, that mad cow disease had finally arrived in the U.S. killed the market's holiday spirit. (For more, see "While You...
Times change. People change. And alas, so do notions of retirement. It's hard to conceive of sunset years that aren't entirely filled with sunrises on a Hawaiian beach. But imagine it we must, beca...
Jim Cantalupo wants you to know that McDonald's "gets it." The new chairman and CEO of the largest restaurant chain in the world is sitting back in a leather chair in his Oak Brook, Ill., office, s...
THE HEADLINES 1 I'd Like to Buy a Vowel
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Cash is king. Always has been, always will be--except, perhaps, for a brief moment during the late, great bull market, when stock became the fresh prince of the buyout game. Predators like Cisco, M...
Chances are, if you hear of a "Big Mac Attack" these days, it comes with chest pains. At least at McDonald's headquarters in Oak Brook, Ill., where the bad news tends to be super-sized. When the fa...
THE HEADLINES
When Wendy's Dave Thomas took square hamburgers national and Alfred "Freddy" Heineken made bottles at his grandfather's brewery green, they probably didn't realize those moves would launch two grea...
Why Bill Gates Likes The View From Avista
Sometimes a great notion is only that--an idea. But truly great ideas are more. Just ask anyone who has implemented one successfully. We did, and we discovered that making a real business out of an...
Last month, FORTUNE got an invite to attend the digital rebirth of Sperry & Hutchinson Green Stamps. We were intrigued--the old company that let Americans exchange stamps for merchandise (making "l...
As if NATO's decision whether to open a ground offensive in Kosovo weren't weighty enough, consider: It could affect your next car purchase. Without diminishing the gravity of the Yugoslav conflict...
What's Wall Street's best martini bar? A lot of Street types pick the FiftySeven Bar at the Four Seasons hotel. If by "best" they mean pretentious, then they've got it right. FORTUNE's outing there...
Forget gourmet ice cream. What really tickles America's taste buds is canned pineapple. Yep. You read it right. In one of the most comprehensive customer satisfaction studies ever done, the Univers...
You hardly need reminding that your investments are almost perpetually under attack. Choose your assailant: bubbling inflation, bobbing interest rates, the decrepit dollar, Washington politicians-a...
McDonald's shareholders quadrupled their money over the past 10 years as the world's largest fast-food chain raised its golden arches from St. Petersburg, Fla. to Moscow. But the best fast-food pro...
Working after school is one of the verities of American life, right up there with baseball and apple pie. But while there's nothing wrong with teaching Junior the value of a buck or Janie self-reli...
-- Who's the most nervous person in corporate America right now? The staff member who, back in July, forgot to make reservations for December's office party. Choice New York City spots, such as the...
America loves speed, so the idea seems a natural: Combine fast cash with fast food. Wendy's International will see if it works. The company recently began testing terminals similar to automated tel...
HENRY A. LAMBERT, 51, entrepreneur, on how he started the Pasta & Cheese chain, which he just sold to Carnation for $56.3 million: ''I hired an out-of-work Italian mime and a Phi Beta Kappa from Tu...
) The biggest bull market in history has created its own investing Pamplona. The amateurs happily running with the bulls this time, though, are members of the nation's investment clubs. Today the N...
Joel Cooper Ex-surfer Cooper no longer rides the waves, but he still cruises Southern California beaches to find ideas for his sportswear company, Gotcha. As C.E.O., Cooper, 32, has kept Gotcha pop...
The description in the multiple-listing guide reads like a dream: a spacious four-bedroom house in Plymouth, Minn., a western suburb of Minneapolis, for $125,900. But as soon as Steve Fedie, 34, a ...
HOUSEHOLDERS who find their mailboxes wadded with catalogues may not believe it, but the growth of the consumer mail-order business seems finally to be slowing. According to Maxwell Sroge Publishin...
Fresh lettuce and tomatoes -- or more precisely, ''cool'' lettuce and tomatoes -- are making a comeback in fast food. For years Burger King, Wendy's, and Roy Rogers have tried to bite into McDonald...
Environmental Testing & Certification Corp. No one understands the government's complex environmental regulations better than the people who once enforced them. At least that's the thinking at Envi...
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