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Burger King's King Jr. meal sales rose 40% year over year last quarter, reaching a decade-high level, driven partly by upgraded chicken nuggets and a Dragon Ball Super promotion. President Tom Curtis said a growing number of adults are buying the kids' meals for smaller portions, with Circana data showing adult orders of kids' meals up 28% since 2019.
Nelson Peltz's Trian Fund Management, along with BlueFive Capital, Sixth Street Partners and franchisee Flynn Group, has proposed buying Wendy's for $7.35 per share in cash, a deal valued around $1.4 billion and roughly 20% above the prior stock price. Wendy's shares jumped about 15% on the news. Trian and related entities already hold about 16% of Wendy's stock, and Peltz's son Bradley serves on the company's board.
Taco Bell has launched a weekly mini-game for rewards members running through Nov. 1, letting players earn 'Paddles' for prize drawings including a signed Davante Adams jersey. The move follows Domino's summer launch of its Soccer Shootout game and Burger King's sweepstakes offering Royal Perks members weekly cash prizes up to $5,000. Smoothie King's earlier spin-to-win games reportedly drew over 2 million plays and boosted loyalty sign-ups by more than 40% in three months, per platform builder PAR Technology.
Burger King is launching a claw machine stunt at its Downey, California location on Oct. 23 at 11 a.m., giving customers a chance to win a one-of-a-kind 14K gold-plated Hello Kitty figurine or a standard Hello Kitty toy. The event launches a broader Sanrio partnership tied to the new Hello Kitty and Friends King Jr. Kids' Meal, which debuted Oct. 20 and includes a blind-box figurine from a set of six characters, five wearing Burger King crowns plus the rare gold Hello Kitty.
Wendy's announced that starting Oct. 19, participating U.S. locations will offer the Dave's Single combo meal—a quarter-pound burger, small fries and small drink—for $7.99 for a limited time. The promotion follows CEO Bob Wright's five-point turnaround plan addressing quality, value, operations, store upgrades and marketing, after the chain fell to third place among U.S. burger chains.
Burger King Japan disclosed that unauthorized third parties accessed a server managing its official app's member data between October 2 and 7, 2026, exposing 11.18 million records including names, birth dates, gender, emails, phone numbers and order history. The company said it blocked the intrusion upon discovery, completed a follow-up investigation on October 13, and reported the incident to Japan's Personal Information Protection Commission.
Several major fast-food chains and restaurants are offering discounts, freebies, and promotions to mark National Cheeseburger Day, including McDonald's, Burger King, and Five Guys. The deals span a range of formats, from free add-ons to discounted combo meals, giving customers multiple ways to save on the popular sandwich.
Burger King's newest franchise disclosure document shows the chain finished fiscal 2025 with 6,650 U.S. restaurants, down from 6,701 at the start of the year. That net figure of 51 fewer stores masks a larger churn of individual closures and openings happening across the system.
Major AI companies are accelerating efforts to build superintelligent systems, pushing timelines and resources into overdrive despite unresolved safety and control questions. The push reflects competitive pressure among leading labs to be first to achieve transformative AI capabilities.
New Wendy's CEO Bob Wright has detailed a five-part strategy to reverse the chain's slide behind Burger King into third place among U.S. burger chains, citing prior 'quality degradation' as a key cause. The plan covers menu and ingredient improvements, fixing inconsistent store operations, selectively closing weak locations while opening new ones, overhauling marketing with new hire Tariq Hassan as chief marketing and customer growth officer, and scaling back reliance on discount promotions in favor of core menu value.
Burger King is updating its chicken nuggets and dipping sauces with a new recipe, following a similar overhaul of its Whopper burger. The company says the Whopper changes helped drive an 8.5% increase in sales, prompting it to extend the same strategy to another core menu item.