🠈 Chuck E Cheese 🠊
Chuck E Cheese
Chuck E Cheese is a chain of pizza restaurants that include arcade games, amusement rides, and animatronics.
The restaurant was founded in 1977 by Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari with the goal of incorporating animatronics in a fun environment. The first restaurant was in San Jose.
Chuck E Cheese had development arrangements in 1979 with Robert Brock of Kansas City. Brock created a competing chain called Showbiz Pizza which created a short lived rivalry.
The animated pizza business fell on hard times in the 1980s as the video game business evolved faster than animatronics. The two companies merged in the mid 1980s. The site ShowBizPizza.com has pictures from the Show Biz Days.
Today, Chuck E Cheese is headquartered in Irving, Texas and claims to have 500 plus restaurants. The company traded on the NYSE with the symbol CEC. It was acquired by Apollo Global Management in 2014.
Company Man created a video about the history of the chain after its 2020 bankruptcy.
Corporate Timeline
Below is a listing of select events for Chuck-E-Cheese. The original name for the company was "Coyote Pizza." There was a mistake on the order for the mascot costume and they received a rat's costume instead. Bushnell considered the name "Rick Rat's Pizza" but the marketing department came up with "Chuck E Cheese Pizza Time Theater" instead.
- 1977: Nolan Bushnell, a co-founder of Atari, founded Chuck-E-Cheese restaurant under the umbrella Pizza Time Theatre . The chain was owned by Warner Entertainment.
- 1978: Bushnell acquired rights for company from Warner.
- 1979: Robert Brock of Topeka Inn Management joined firm and acquired franchising rights in 16 states. Brock franchised Holiday Inn motels.
- 1979: Brock decided he preferred animatronics designed by Aaron Fechter of Creative Engineering, Inc.; So he broke the partnership with Chuck E Cheese and created ShowBiz Pizza Place.
- 1981: Jack DeBeor, who owned a struggling apartment complex, and Brock formed Brock Suite Hotels to create a chain of extended stay hotels called Residence Inn.
- 1981: Pizza Time Theater held an IPO on NASDAQ with the symbol CHKY.
- 1982: Topeka Inn Management changed its name to Brock Hotel Corporation.
- 1984: Bushnell resigns as chairman of Pizza Time Theatre.
- 1984: Pizza Time Theatre declared bankruptcy after a sharp drop in video game sales.
- 1985: ShowBiz bought the bankrupt Pizza Time Theatre to create Showbiz Pizza Time Inc with 359 stores.
- 1987: Marriott acquired the Residence Inn franchise system.
- 1988: Brock Hotel Corp. changed its name to Integra-A Hotel and Restaurant Company and spun off ShowBiz.
- 1992: ShowBiz rebranded its restaurants as Chuck E Cheese.
- 1998: Showbiz Pizza Time renamed itself CEC Entertainment, Inc..
- 1999: CEC acquired 13 locations of the bankrupt Discovery Zone chain.
- 2014: Apollo Global Management acquired CEC for $1.3 billion. ($54 per share plus assumption of debt).5
- 2014: Apollo acquired Peter Piper Pizza and added it to CEC.
- 2017: CEC contemplated an IPO to ease its debt burdens.
- 2020: CEC was still saddled with $1.2 billion from the Apollo acquisition and declare bankruptcy.2 They had 612 CEC restaurants and 122 Peter Piper Restaurants. They announced canceling 34 leases.
References:
- Wikipedia - Chuck E Cheese (Drawn 6/30/2020)
- Business Insider - Apollo Buys Chuck-E-Cheese (Drawn 6/30/2020)
- Funding Universe - CEC Entertainment (Drawn 7/5/2020)
- Show Biz Pizza Timeline (Drawn 7/14/2020)
- GCS Web - Apollo Buyout (Drawn 7/14/2020)
Directory Listings:
- Phoenix Color - Pizza: Chuck E Cheese
- Pima County - Pizza: Chuck E Cheese
- Yuma County - Pizza: Chuck E Cheese
- Colorado Springs Color - Pizza: Chuck E Cheese
- Denver Color - Pizza: Chuck E Cheese
- Internet Rivers - Pizza Chains: Chuck E Cheese
- Provo Utah - Pizza: Chuck E Cheese
- Salt Lake Sites - Pizza: Chuck E Cheese