MarketingProfs

MediaBuyerPlanner: IHOP is acquiring Applebees in a deal that was considered by analysts as highly unlikely to go through.
The world’s largest casual dining chain will be acquired by IHOP, a smaller chain, for about $2.1 billion, writes the San Antonio Business Journal.
Industry watchers thought the purchase of the 1,943-store chain by the 1,319-store IHOP – which franchises out 99 percent of its restaurants – was unlikely to happen. “It would be over a $2 billion purchase,” Michael Smith, an analyst with Oppenheimer & Co., is quoted as saying in Forbes.com. “And IHOP is a franchise owner. They don’t really run restaurants.”
Applebee’s has hired McCann Erickson to design a new, integrated communications campaign that will launch in the fourth quarter.