Chuck E. Cheese might soon be on the market again. According to a report from Reuters, the Irving, Texas-based company has tapped Goldman Sachs to explore a potential acquisition amid such interest.

The publication noted that private equity firms and peers like Dave & Buster’s could be potential suitors. Sources say a deal could be worth over $1 billion.

According to Technomic Ignite data, Chuck E. Cheese ended 2022 with about $348 million in sales and about 475 U.S. locations. Parent company CEC Entertainment also includes about 125 international Chuck E. Cheese locations, more than 120 Peter Piper Pizza locations and 400 Paqually’s Pizza & Wings virtual locations.

Chuck E. Cheese has made several headlines in the past few years, including another bid to merge with Leo Holdings Corp. and go public in 2019, five years after Apollo Global Management took the company private. That IPO, however, fell through. The entertainment company had a hard road during the pandemic and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June 2020. The company emerged from bankruptcy in January 2021.

Since then, the company has hired a bevy of new executives, has partnered with Virtual Dining Concepts to launch a LankyBox Kitchen concept, has launched its first location-based licensing deal and, just today, launched a new “grown-up menu.”

The new menu includes four new pizzas, all baked-to-order, new wing sauces and rubs, new all-beef meatballs, and new Buddy’s famous cakes by the slice. The menu is set to roll out across Chuck E. Cheese locations nationwide this week.

Nation’s Restaurant News has reached out to CEC Entertainment for more information about Reuters report.

Original Article:
[H/T] RestaurantBusinessOnline.com