Landry’s acquiring McCormick & Schmick’s

Continuing a regional mergers-and-acquisition boomlet highlighted in the November issue of Seattle Business magazine, and following by one day a disappointing earnings report, restaurant operator McCormick and Schmicks announced an agreement to be acquired by privately held Landrys Restaurants of Houston for $8.75 per share. Earlier this year, M&S had rejected an offer of $9.25 per share from Landrys, opting to adopt a poison pill to thwart any takeover and hiring Piper Jaffray to advise it on sale of the company. The deal values the company at about $132 million.

Landrys, owned by Texas entrepreneur Tillman Fertitta, is a major operator of restaurants and casinos, including the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas and Atlantic City, N.J., formerly the Trump Marina casino. Fertitta bought a controlling interest in Landrys in 1986, taking the company private in 2010.

Portland-based McCormick and Schmicks operates some 100 restaurants and catering locations nationwide. Founder Bill McCormick started in the early 1970s, buying the century-old Portland institution Jakes Famous Crawfish. He brought on Douglas Schmick to manage the restaurant. Schmick has remained the manager and chairman of the board of the company, and he personally announced the sale Tuesday morning. The two formed McCormick & Schmicks in the late ’70s and began opening and operating restaurants under that name. The company went public in 2004.

In Washington, it operates McCormick & Schmick’s Seafood Restaurants (Seattle and Bellevue), McCormick’s Fish House & Bar (Seattle) and McCormick & Schmick’s Harborside on Lake Union.

Landry’s owns dozens of themed restaurant chains, including Rainforest Cafe, The Chart House, Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. and Claim Jumper. In the Seattle area, it operates one rainforest Cafe and three Claim Jumper restaurants.