It's Official: IHOP Buys Applebee's For $2.1 Billion

[matcom]

<snip>

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- IHOP Corp. said Monday it plans to buy bar-and-grill chain Applebee's International Inc. for $25.50 per share to expand beyond its iconic pancake restaurants, sending IHOP's shares up nearly 12 percent to an all-time high.

The all-cash deal, which represents a 4.6 percent premium to Applebee's closing price on Friday, is worth about $1.9 billion, based on the company's 75,072,000 shares outstanding as of April 1.

A source close to the deal said it included about $155 million in debt, bringing the total value to $2.1 billion, the figure cited by the companies.

Excluding charges related to the acquisition, IHOP expects the transaction to add to earnings beginning in 2008.

IHOP's (up $4.70 to $60.95, Charts) shares were 9 percent higher on the New York Stock Exchange by mid-day Monday.

IHOP, with its market capitalization of $980.6 million, according to Reuters data, is using securitized debt backed mostly by Applebee's assets to fund the purchase of the much larger company, whose market value is $1.82 billion.

http://money.cnn.com/2007/07/16/news/companies/ihop_applebees/index.htm?cnn=yes

[BlooInBloo]

1. Sweet! Fuckin hate those cookie-cutter places....

... Applebees, Chile's, etc. ad nauseum.

Caveat: Red Robin gets a pass because of its good morning burger.

[Left Is Write]

6. Applebee's gets a pass from me, because nearly everything on the Tyler Florence

menu is pretty damned good.

Last week I went there and had his applewood smoked chicken, which was served with garlic fries (garnished with shaved parmesan) and a spinach/apple/feta/cranberry salad with a vinaigrette dressing.

[xmas74]

2. Maybe they'll convert the crappy Applebee's in my town

into an IHOP. I'm craving some stuffed French toast right about now.

[underpants]

3. WOW that is 262,828,536 orders of Chicken Quesadilla Grande

http://carside.net/menu_popup.htm

[ruiner4u]

4. IHOP has 2.1b?

but, Yay! I love ihop...:)

[noonwitch]

5. I like Applebee's southwest chicken salad

Max and Erma's is better, but theirs is good.

I worked at an IHOP in the 80s. It was a nasty place-the building doesn't even exist anymore, it was torn down. But the one I worked at was in the parking lot of Woodland Mall in Grand Rapids, MI. My boss was a pervert who gave us all short uniforms so he could look at our legs. The meat they served there was gross-not the sausage, but the hamburgers. The only things I would eat there were breakfast foods. They bought the pancake and waffle mix from the national company.

IHOP was a franchise operation. The guy who owned the place (who was a really nice guy) owned the other one in town and two other restaurants-Granny's Kitchen and a converted Dog n Suds in Rockford. The other restaurants were fine. I blame the manager of the one I worked at.

[hyphenate]

7. Haven't been in an Applebee's for quite some time

because I don't care for their food. It was also on the high price end, too. Anything that IHOP can do to change the quality of the food and lower the prices sounds good to me.

PS: Haven't been in since the bally-hooed Tyler Florence menu, but I imagine they increased the price to accommodate the new "nutritional" dishes?

Back in New England, I'm much happier with the 99, Picadilly Pub, Bertucci's, and other such. In L.A., I loved B.J.'s Pub and Grill. I miss B.J.'s, but not a whole lot else in terms of eating out.

[EstimatedProphet]

8. Now the food can only get better at Applebee's

[Burma Jones]

9. Now all they have to do is buy Olive Garden

and make Cornflake Chicken

[Akoto]

10. Hope this won't affect their conversion to trans fat-free oil.

I had started eating there again because of that change.