Pizza Hut was sold this week. $2.7 billion. Yum Brands unloaded it to a private equity firm called LongRange Capital, with the China business going separately to Yum China.
Before you’re impressed by the number, consider this: PepsiCo paid $300 million for Pizza Hut in 1977 — when it was the largest pizza chain in the world. Adjusted for inflation, that’s roughly what it just sold for nearly fifty years later. The brand that was worth acquiring because it was #1 got sold after it was no longer #1 — for essentially the same price in real dollars. Fifty years. Zero real growth. After taxes and separation costs, Yum will net closer to $2.3 billion — and spend $85 million just to finalize the split.
