Convenience Stores

Miami -- Burger King Worldwide agreed to buy Canadian quick-serve chain Tim Hortons for approximately $11.4 billion, creating the world’s third largest quick-serve restaurant company. Under a tax inversion deal, the corporate headquarters of the new company will be in Canada, where the combined company’s biggest market will be.  

Houston - Luby’s, operator of the Luby’s and Fuddruckers casual dining brands, is expanding its use of the EyeQinsights system. The EyeQ solution learns about in-store shoppers and uses customer activity, demographics and preferences to enable retailers to instantly customize each shopper’s experience.

Colonia, N.J. -- Muscle Maker Grill, a fast-casual restaurant franchise that serves freshly prepared health-conscious meals, will be opening 22 new locations throughout the country, which will raise the number to more than 75 units.

Recent store openings include Las Vegas, Dallas, a third location in Connecticut, located in Hamden and a second location in Staten Island, New York. An additional 22 new franchises will result in the development of restaurants across the country, from California to New York.

Los Angeles -- Brentwood Associates, a consumer-focused private equity investment firm, has acquired Marshall Retail Group, a leading specialty retailer for high-foot-traffic marketplaces with locations in major casino-hotels and airports across the United States. The company is led by CEO Michael C. Wilkins, who will continue to lead the business going forward.

Nashville, Tenn. - Cybera Inc., a provider of virtual application network services, has completed a new National Bankcard Service (NBS) payment Virtual Application Network (VAN) that enables connectivity between POS and NBS payment processors. With this new partnership, Cybera has given NBS the ability to process payment through POS systems that emit payment through serial interface.

By Jared Isaacman

New York -- Walmart announced in a post on its corporate blog that its store-brand MasterCard holders can expect to receive a new chip-enabled card in the "next few weeks." The discounter said it is among the first retailers to implement chip technology as a more secure payment means for cardholders. It also noted in the post that Sam's CLub introduced a chip-enabled MasterCard in June. Both cards prompt customers not to swipe – but to insert and briefly leave the card in the payment terminal, so the card’s embedded chip can be accessed.

New York -- Burger King Worldwide is in discussions to buy Canadian coffee and doughnut chain Tim Hortons. The two companies said in a joint statement on Monday that the new publicly listed entity would be based in Canada. The move comes as the White House is calling on Congress to take steps to prevent U.S. companies from moving outside the country (“tax inversions”).

The two restaurant companies are currently worth a combined total of about $18 billion, according to media reports.