BLMN - Did Bloomin' Brands Just Inch Closer to Being Sold?
Bloomin' Brands (NASDAQ: BLMN) has seen several ups and downs in recent months -- even before the coronavirus pandemic took hold of the economy -- as activist investor JANA Partners LLC made a bid to get Bloomin' to auction itself off in February. Though Bloomin', the parent company of Outback Steakhouse, Bonefish Grill, Carrabba's Italian Grill, and other restaurant brands, ultimately didn't put itself on the auction block, JANA Partners just managed to get two directors onto its board, raising the possibility it might try again in the future.
This isn't JANA's first rodeo in getting control of a company and maneuvering it into selling itself to a yet larger business. It reaped $450 million in profits, effectively doubling its cash, by guiding the troubled PetSmart into being acquired by BC Partners and its allies for $8.7 billion in 2014. As a prelude to the move, JANA bought a 10% stake in PetSmart (which was then publicly traded). This allegedly allowed it to obtain sensitive internal documents, pressuring PetSmart into compliance with the sale plan to avoid the documents' publication.
History repeated itself in April 2017 when JANA purchased 9% of Whole Foods Market's stock. Whole Foods was then an independent publicly traded company. Declaring Whole Foods "undervalued," JANA launched a seven-point program to improve its "value for shareholders" while suggesting Whole Foods should sell itself. By July, JANA steered Whole Foods into auctioning itself off to Amazon, pocketing $300 million in the process.