Los Angeles, Sept 29 - Triarc Cos Inc, the investment arm of billionaire investor Nelson Peltz and owner of the Arby's sandwich chain, said it closed its $2.2 billion acquisition of Wendy's International Inc on Monday.
The combined company, Wendy's/Arby's Group, Inc, is the third-largest publicly held fast-food chain in sales behind McDonald's Corp and Yum Brands Inc.
Wendy's executives had struggled to revive business at the third-largest U.S. hamburger chain since the 2002 death of company founder Dave Thomas, an advertising cult hero who starred in more than 800 commercials starting in 1989.
Triarc Chief Executive Roland Smith also has been named CEO of the combined company.
With the close of the deal, J. David Karam -- one of Wendy's largest franchisees, who attempted to buy the chain -- takes over Wendy's day-to-day operations from company President and CEO Kerrii Anderson.
Under terms of the deal, Wendy's shareholders received 4.25 Class A Triarc shares for each Wendy's share held.
Triarc shares closed up 47 cents, or 8.7 percent, at $5.90 on Monday, which would assign a value of $25.08 to Wendy's shares. Wendy's had 88.4 million shares outstanding.
The merged company will trade under the ticker WEN on the New York Stock Exchange.
Wendy's shares fell 15.2 percent, or $3.43, to $19.21 after the stock market plunged after U.S. lawmakers unexpectedly rejected a $700 billion financial bailout plan.