A Yum! Brands, dona das redes KFC, Taco Bell e Pizza Hut, anunciou nesta terça-feira (16) a venda da operação global da Pizza Hut por US$ 2,7 bilhões, encerrando uma revisão estratégica iniciada no ano passado para encontrar alternativas para a rede de pizzarias, que vem perdendo espaço no mercado.

Pelos termos do acordo, a gestora de private equity LongRange Capital comprará as operações da Pizza Hut fora da China continental por US$ 1,5 bilhão, enquanto a Yum China Holdings adquirirá os negócios da marca no mercado chinês por cerca de US$ 1,2 bilhão. A expectativa é que as transações sejam concluídas no terceiro trimestre.

As ações da Yum chegaram a subir cerca de 1% nas negociações de pré-mercado nos Estados Unidos. Até o fechamento de segunda-feira, os papéis acumulavam alta de 2,2% em 2026, desempenho inferior ao avanço de aproximadamente 10% do índice S&P 500 no mesmo período.

A Yum controla a Pizza Hut desde 1997, quando foi desmembrada da PepsiCo. A PepsiCo havia adquirido a rede de pizzarias em 1977 e comprou a Taco Bell no ano seguinte.

No Brasil, a Pizza Hut também faz parte da operação global da Yum, mas é administrada por franqueados locais por meio da IMC (International Meal Company). A mudança não deva afetar o funcionamento das lojas ou o relacionamento com os franqueados no curto prazo.

Concorrência crescente

A venda ocorre após anos de tentativas de revitalizar o desempenho da Pizza Hut, conhecida por suas pizzas de massa grossa e bordas amanteigadas.

A rede enfrentou dificuldades para acompanhar as mudanças no setor de alimentação e a crescente concorrência, tanto dentro do mercado de pizzas quanto no segmento de restaurantes como um todo.

Segundo Neil Saunders, diretor da GlobalData, a Domino’s Pizza conquistou vantagens importantes em áreas como inovação de cardápio, marketing, tecnologia de pedidos e infraestrutura de entrega.

Além disso, a Pizza Hut perdeu atratividade entre consumidores que preferem comer nos restaurantes, em busca de ambientes mais modernos e opções de menu mais amplas.

Os números refletem essa perda de relevância. A participação da Pizza Hut na receita da Yum! caiu todos os anos desde 2019, passando de mais de 18% para cerca de 12% em 2025, segundo dados compilados pela Bloomberg.

Enquanto as vendas da Pizza Hut permaneceram pouco acima de US$ 1 bilhão ao longo dos últimos anos, a receita total da Yum! cresceu cerca de 47% no período, alcançando US$ 8,2 bilhões em 2025.

Recompra de ações

A companhia informou que espera levantar cerca de US$ 2,3 bilhões líquidos com a operação. Parte desses recursos deverá ser destinada aos acionistas: o conselho de administração aprovou uma autorização adicional de US$ 4 bilhões para recompra de ações.

A venda marca o fim de quase cinco décadas da Pizza Hut sob o guarda-chuva corporativo iniciado pela PepsiCo e representa uma das maiores mudanças estratégicas da Yum desde sua separação da gigante de bebidas e alimentos.

• Josh Giegel joined SpaceX in 2009 and worked there for 3 years. He says the equity he received has been "liberating."
• Giegel's SpaceX equity has allowed him to put a down payment on a house and help pay off his wife's student loans.
• "The equity also allows me to take a lower salary at my startup," Gambit, he said, and that means he can hire more people.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Josh Giegel, the 41-year-old cofounder of the AI startup Gambit, who lives in Los Angeles. It's been edited for length and clarity.

I was in grad school at Stanford, finishing my master's and wanting to do a Ph.D.

I had worked at NASA the previous summer, and one of the women I worked with was also a Stanford graduate, and was like: "You're going to be so bored at NASA. Why don't you check out this small space company in Los Angeles called SpaceX?"

I applied and interviewed in the two weeks between flight three and flight four of Falcon 1. I interviewed with Elon; he was still interviewing pretty much everyone at the time. I remember going back to my advisor and saying, "There's nothing I'd rather do on the planet than what he just described."

My Master's ended at the end of 2008, and I began in 2009.

I was on what's called the propulsion analysis team, which was four or five people. Our responsibility was: How do you design the first reusable rocket engine? A very small group of us was responsible for the initial stuff that was on Falcon 9.

I started there when I was 23, and I left when I was 27. It was a little bit of naive immaturity. I knew I wanted to start a company one day, and SpaceX was growing like crazy. I wanted to be on a founding team. I still love the company; I almost went back two or three years later before I ended up starting a company of my own.

The IPO is pretty cool. I'm on a bunch of text threads with guys who were there around the same time, and a couple of them are still there. It's cool to see just how big it became.

When I got there, and they gave the offer, there was an equity component. I remember the HR woman who was going over it with me saying, "We think some day, in 10 or 15 years, this might be worth $250,000-300,000." I distinctly remember her saying, "It might get you a nice down payment on a house in Los Angeles."

We all laugh about it now. But, at the time, the saying was: the fastest way to become a millionaire in space is to start as a billionaire.

Buybacks have been really regular for the last 10 years. Every now and then, we'd take a little bit out. For example, we paid off my wife's student loans a number of years ago. We put down a down payment on a house.

I joke: We did actually get a down payment on a house! She wasn't lying when she said that. It's a house that, on our normal salaries at startups, we wouldn't have been able to afford without that additional windfall.

We also love traveling. We've got a seven-year-old and a one-year-old. We're going to go on slightly more adventurous trips because of it.

My wife is also thinking of doing a larger career change that would come with a decent salary reduction, which she probably wouldn't have been able to do without something like SpaceX.

Professionally, I've always been risky. If the majority of your net worth is tied up in a rocket company, you must be a risk-tolerant individual.

Gambit is a VC-backed company. We've raised about $15 million to date, and there are a couple more investment rounds that are coming. The IPO puts you in a position where folks with a substantial amount of equity could be interested in becoming investors.

At least ten of the people I worked with intimately have started their own company. There was a band that I played in with five SpaceX people; four of us started our own companies. I played guitar.

That whole ecosystem can fund its own endeavors and each other. The quantum of capital that they can put in is not like your typical family and friends round. That's typically $20,000, $50,000, maybe $100,000. Here, that could be on the order of $1 million, maybe $2 million per check.

You also become a bit of a mercenary, asking, "I don't need a paycheck from what I'm going to go do, so what am I going to go do?" It's liberating.

The equity also allows me to take a lower salary at my startup, so that I can go out and hire more people to make my company more successful.