DealBook reports that Lion Fund chairman and 1.4 percent stake Applebee’s shareholder Sardar Biglari is experiencing some acid reflux regarding IHOP’s proposed acquisition of the chain. While analysts have crowded around the stark ideological differences in business strategies between the two “restaurants” (IHOP owns 26.3% of its locations, whereas Apple is primarily a franchisor, and owns only 10 of its 1,306 establishments), and Keith Hahn refuses to believe that anyone would want to live in a society where soccer moms, Two and a Half Men, AND IHOPplebees exists, Biglari’s issue is that the purveyor of annoying commercials starring celebrity "chef" Tyler Florence is being lowballed.
Since the $1.9 billion deal was made public last week, IHOP’s stock price has surged, shooting up by about 17 percent to $65.76. Since a buyer’s stock tends to go down after announcements of this nature, Biglari thinks an undervaluation is at hand. He told the Applebee’s board that they’ve “made a grave mistake” in agreeing to the bid, and refused to eat in an International House of Pancakes—a restaurant that DealBook points out, “is known for its pancakes”—until conditions (the $25.50 sale price) improve.
Just to play devil’s advocate, and not because we necessarily think Biglari is wrong, here’s what some of our commenters have had to say about Applebee’s in the past:
Used to work for Crapplebees...as a waiter and in the kitchen sometimes...once undercooked the chicken (that ish was more raw than BSD's bunghole) for the Buffalo Chix Salad...Manager wanted to get it out...just had me douse it in Buffalo Sauce so the customer couldn't see the pink...and served it...This manager left after a busted-ugly waitress he was having an affair with tried to kill herself...twice. This merger is like a White-trash wedding in a trailer park. Posted by: LexSteelz | June 14, 2007 12:35 PMI work for applebees, This would be a glorified Denny's. Except much more messed up. Yea can I get me a side of bbq covered slap jacks and some steak. Mmm, yeap thats me trailer i live it it follows me 1974 ford pickup where ever I go. And also can I get a beer?
Actually applebees stinks thiscould be a great thing.
Posted by: Apple B*tch | June 14, 2007 02:28 PMapplebees is the work of the devil. if ihop gives them a penny i will take is as a sign that they are in a partnership with the terrorists.
Posted by: Anonymous | July 25, 2007 03:16 PM
Earlier: Mergin’ good in the neighborhood – Ihopplebees in the works
Applebee’s Sale Gives Investor Indigestion [DealBook]
Did anyone else wake up this morning feeling empty, with the sense that something was awry? Did you get a nervous feeling in your stomach that seemed to indicate that if later today, a big merger and/or acquisition were announced, there’d be no one to write about it? That if there were a Tax on Private Equity emergency, and say Congress was thisclose to announcing there’d be no increase on the paltry 15%, there’d be no Jew properly suited for the job of chaining himself to a bulldozer (go with me), swallowing the key and refusing to expel it until they promised to make those capitalist crooks pay? 
A well-known financier—cough, Lloyd Blankfein, cough—once said, “The Sunday Styles’ ‘Weddings and Celebrations’ section exists solely to make people feel bad about themselves. If you’re unwed—it’s a reminder that you probably never will be; for the single women, it reinforces the fact that they will die alone, save for their cats and the indelible crows feet caused by years of putting careers before relationships. For the men, it’s a splash of cold water on their no-longer-youthful faces that no one wants an aging bachelor—even Jay McInerney is all, ‘I’d argue that having three divorces and four wives to my name is a small price to pay in exchange for being off that bitch of a singles market.' And if you’re reading ‘W&C’ and are wearing the tiniest handcuff known to mankind? Well, that’s just the cruelest punishment of all. You know what these people are in for.” (Which is part of the reason people stopped inviting him to their weddings and bar mitzvahs-- who needs that kind of negativity?)