Nathan’s Famous (NATH)

As we wrote last March:

> Nathan’s Famous hot dogs started in 1916 and is now the most famous hot dog in the world. It has been steadily growing brand value and cash flows, primarily through its licensing and branded products, while de-levering their balance sheet. It also happens to have a key owner that we think wants to sell and a newly public key partner [Smithfield Foods] looking for stable cash flows that can afford to buy. A 25-50% offer above the current share price would not be unreasonable and appears like it could happen soon.

The strategic partner did indeed buy them out. It was just announced and a reasonable outcome for shareholders, albeit below summer speculative highs.

> SMITHFIELD, Va., January 21, 2026 / -- Smithfield Foods, Inc. (Nasdaq: SFD) (“Smithfield Foods” or “Smithfield”), an American food company and an industry leader in value-added packaged meats and fresh pork, and Nathan’s Famous, Inc. (Nasdaq: NATH) (“Nathan’s Famous”), today announced that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement for Smithfield Foods to acquire all of Nathan’s Famous’ issued and outstanding shares for $102.00 per share in cash, which represents an enterprise value of approximately $450 million… The transaction represents a valuation of approximately 12.4x Nathan’s Famous’s LTM adjusted EBITDA2 and a multiple of approximately 10.0x post- synergies. Smithfield Foods expects to achieve annual cost synergies of approximately $9 million by the second anniversary of the deal closing