Paul Brown, CEO of Inspire Brands, is looking to acquire Dunkin’ Brands in a deal estimated to be worth nearly $8.8 billion, a report by the New York Times claimed on Sunday.
Brown, whose company has already acquired restaurant brands such as Arby’s, Buffalo Wild Wings, Jimmy John’s, and Sonic, has already hinted at his interest in shifting some of his focus to restaurants focusing on breakfast meals.
In August, he explained during an interview with Yahoo! Finance that achieving scale through acquisition is a strategy that has provided much value for Inspire Brands in the past few months.
When asked about the potential deal, Inspire Brands refused to divulge any details, broadly stating: “We do not comment on rumors around potential acquisition targets”. Despite this refusal to comment, it is still widely expected that a deal will be announced shortly, potentially even as early as sometime this week.
When questioned, Dunkin’ Brands revealed that it has held preliminary discussions with Inspire Brands over the potential acquisition.
Should the acquisition occur, this would be Inspire Brands’ largest acquisition throughout Brown’s three-year buying spree. In 2017, Brown began his acquisition spree, forking out $2.9 billion for Buffalo Wild Wings. One year later, Inspire Brands completed a $2.3 billion acquisition of fast food chain Sonic.
