The 5 Biggest Restaurant M&As

After much speculation on Monday, JAB Holdings and Panera Bread Co PNRA agreed to merge in a $7.5 billion deal in which Panera's shareholders will receive $315 per share in cash.

Here is how the deal stacks up against other notable restaurant M&As. 

Panera-JAB: The Second Biggest North American Deal Ever

CNBC's Carl Quintanilla tweeted a list of the five biggest M&A deals based on total transaction value. The data was compiled by S&P Global Market Intelligence and found that the Panera-JAB deal is the second biggest transaction ever.

The largest deal consisted of Burger King and its parent company's $12.5 billion deal to acquire Canada's iconic Tim Hortons coffee chain. The combination of the two restaurant chains forms two of the core brands that make up Restaurant Brands International Inc QSR.

Third Largest Deal Also Involves QSR

Five years before QSR acquired Tim Hortons, the parent company of the Burger King chain agreed to sell itself to Brazil-based 3G Capital for $3.3 billion.

Fourth Largest: Arby's Parent Company Buys Wendy's

Ranking as the fourth largest M&A restaurant deal, Triarc Companies agreed to acquire burger chain Wendys Co WEN. Triarc, the parent company of Arby's Restaurant, paid Wendy's shareholders 4.25 shares of its stock for each share of Wendy's owned, which valued the transaction at $2.929 billion.

The deal saw the creation of the a new company called Wendy's/Arby's Group.
Wendy's went on to sell a majority stake in Arby's to Roark Capital for $430 million in 2011.

Fifth Largest: Dunkin' Brands Sells To Private Equity Buyers

Finally, donuts and coffee chain Dunkin Brands Group Inc DNKN agreed back in 2006 to sell itself to a consortium of private equity firms for $2.425 billion.

Carlyle, Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee each bought a 33 percent stake in Dunkin at the time. Carlyle exited its investment in 2012 after a series of secondary offerings and one year after Dunkin's stock returned to the public market in a July 2011 IPO. 

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