Papa John’s Weighs in on $1.5 Billion Takeover Offer from Irth Capital, Shares Rise 20%
A Qatar-backed fund has made a $47 offer to acquire Papa John's and take the company private, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the bid.
Shares of Papa John's, which operates 6,000 locations in 50 countries, have fallen 16 percent in the past year, but the stock is up nearly 20 percent a day after it reported a takeover bid.
The proposal from Air Capital Management, which is backed by Brookfield Asset Management, values the pizza chain at around $1.5 billion. The discount is 50% above what the stock traded at before the bid was made.
Papa John's, one of the top pizza restaurant chains in the US, is widely associated with real-world Bitcoin purchases.
In the year In 2010, a programmer spent 10,000 Bitcoins on two pizzas from the chain, the first known real-world purchase using Bitcoin. The transaction is now celebrated annually as “Bitcoin Pizza Day”.
Earth Capital's bid for control comes amid efforts to restructure the chain's cost-effective and underperforming outlets.
Papa John's is set to close 300 of its restaurants by the end of 2027, with two hundred closing this year. The company expects 2025 revenue of more than $2 billion, flat from 2024, declining profits and shrinking its corporate workforce by 7 percent.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Vivian Nguyen. See our Editorial Policy for more information on how we create and review content.
