McDonald's No Longer A Premier Olympic Sponsor

Investors are shrugging off Friday's announcement that McDonald's Corporation MCD and the International Olympic Committee mutually agreed to end their partnership. Shares of McDonald's were trading slightly higher by 0.3 percent early Friday morning after McDonald's Global Chief Marketing Officer Silvia Lagnado explained in a joint press release that management has decided to focus on different priorities. Related Links: Why Olympic TV Ratings Were So Poor And What NBC Got Wrong In Rio From McMuffins To Mobile: Tracking Olympic Sponsors With TD Ameritrade's JJ Kinahan ________ Image Credit: "Epic Queue in Olympic McDonald's" By Matt Brown from London, England (Epic Queue in Olympic McDonalds) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

McDonald's will continue acting as a sponsor of the Olympic Winter Games in 2018 with domestic marketing rights in the Republic of Korea only. The relationship will fully cease afterward and the fast food chain won't play a role in the 2020 Olympic games in Tokyo.

McDonald's served as a sponsor of the Olympic games since 1976 and had a contract to remain a sponsor through 2020. The IOC has no immediate plans to find a replacement in the retail food operations sponsorship category in which McDonald's had exclusive rights within the category.

The financial terms of the separation were agreed by all parties and remains confidential.

The IOC still has many notable long-term sponsors, including automaker Toyota Motor Corp (ADR) TM through the 2024 games, China-based eCommerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd BABA through the 2028 games, and luxury watchmaker Omega through the 2032 games.