So much, again, for Nelson Peltz taking Wendy’s private

The on-again, off-again sale of Wendy’s is off again, at least according to Reuters, which said in a report on Wednesday that Nelson Peltz, the company’s largest shareholder, has shelved plans to buy the chain.

Peltz’s Trian Fund Management, which owns just over 16% of Wendy’s shares, apparently has concerns about the company’s performance and its “current strategic direction,” according to Reuters.

Unsurprisingly, the news erased much of the gains Wendy’s had made when investors thought it would be sold. The stock is down 12% in morning trading on Thursday.

But it also continues a ridiculous amount of uncertainty for Wendy’s, the company’s employees, and its franchisees, who keep wondering if things are going to change again.

It’s certainly understandable why Peltz would ultimately decide against buying the company. There’s no guarantee that Wendy’s would perform better as a stand-alone, private company and the fix for the chain will likely require a heavy dose of spending.

In theory, he may be waiting for a better price, as some folks have pointed out, and he wouldn’t be the first buyer to think such a thing.

But Wendy’s already trades at a discount to other fast-food chains, a discount Peltz played a substantial role in creating. The company’s enterprise value multiple is 12 times EBITDA, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. By comparison, Jack in the Box trades at 12.4, Domino’s 16.1, and McDonald’s 16.3.

While Wendy’s shares are up 8.5% this year so far, they are down 12% over the past 12 months and 61% over the past five years.

Much of that decline has taken place since 2023, when Peltz opted not to buy Wendy’s after initially indicating he was considering such a move. That year has proved pivotal, because the reorganization that Wendy’s opted for instead largely triggered the yearly changes that have exacerbated the chain’s challenges.

As a reminder, Peltz was Wendy’s chairman at the time. The company ditched its U.S. president as part of a reorganization. The next year it abruptly replaced Todd Penegor with an industry newbie in Kirk Tanner, who shortly thereafter uttered the words “dynamic pricing” on an earnings call, igniting a firestorm. Peltz then stepped down as chairman.

Wendy’s then reinstated the U.S. presidency position, handing the job to Abigail Pringle. In 2025 Tanner stepped aside, and so did Pringle, and the company was without a permanent CEO for about nine months before finally hiring longtime former executive Bob Wright for the role.

In February, as the company was looking for a new CEO, Peltz said in a filing he was looking into potentially taking the company private. That filing made it more difficult for Wendy’s to fill the position.

Wendy’s U.S. performance has deteriorated badly, culminating last quarter with a 1,550-basis-point same-store sales underperformance compared with Burger King, which has regained the No. 2 burger spot that Wendy’s took from it four years ago.

After Wendy’s brought in Wright, who worked with the chain for decades and once worked with Dave Thomas, and who has experience turning around brands after a successful run at Potbelly, a report in Reuters said that Peltz was preparing an offer.

Two weeks later, the same publication said Peltz was no longer planning to do so, and it included comments critical to Wendy’s direction. But it’s a direction he had a major hand in crafting.