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Money & Company

Bubba Gump Shrimp owner to buy Morton’s steakhouse chain

By Tiffany Hsu
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This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Storied -– and expensive -– Chicago steakhouse chain Morton’s Restaurant Group Inc. is going private in an acquisition by Bubba Gump Shrimp and Rainforest Cafe owner Tilman J. Fertitta.

Fertitta’s company, Houston-based Landry’s Restaurants Inc., will buy Morton’s for $6.90 a share, a 34% premium on Thursday’s $5.16 closing price. That’s about $117 million total.

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The upscale steakhouse chain has a glittering past, including 14 years as the host to Vanity Fair’s famed Oscar party in West Hollywood. There are 11 Morton’s locations in California.

Morton’s board of directors has unanimously approved the deal, which Fertitta plans to finance through cash and debt and which is expected to close in early February. In midday trading Friday in New York, Morton’s shares were up 32.6% to $6.84.

Last month, Landry’s scooped up McCormick & Schmick’s Seafood Restaurants for $131.6 million after months of hostile takeover attempts.

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-- Tiffany Hsu

Money & Company
Tiffany Hsu

Tiffany Hsu is a former staff writer for the Los Angeles Times. Previously, she wrote about the California economy, fast food, restaurants, retail and alternative energy for the Business section. A Bay Area native, UC Berkeley graduate and eternal Nor-Cal fan, she once worked for the San Francisco Bay Guardian. She also did a stint at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, where she developed a passion for sweet tea. She still has faith that someday she’ll find two economists who agree.

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