Qatari-backed fund called Irth Capital Management has bid to take Papa John’s private at $47 a share, which would value the chain at roughly $1.5 billion and represents a 50% premium to where PZZA was trading before word got out, per the Wall Street Journal. Papa John’s shares jumped 19% Wednesday on the news.
The 50% premium tells you everything you need to know about how bad things have gotten at Papa John’s. This is a company whose stock peaked above $140 in 2021 and has been on a slow, greasy slide ever since. Last month it announced it would be closing hundreds of domestic stores, cutting menu items, and trimming corporate headcount. North American same-store sales are expected to fall this year. Domino’s has been eating Papa John’s lunch for years, Pizza Hut’s owner Yum Brands is reportedly looking to offload that brand too, and the broader pizza category is losing ground to Mexican food and, somehow, coffee shops. The pizza business, it turns out, is not where you want to be right now unless you are Domino’s, which is not Papa John’s.
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Irth is a global asset manager established in 2024, backed by a member of the Qatari royal family, and this would be one of its first major deals. The firm already tried to acquire Papa John’s last year alongside Apollo, a deal that fell apart. It has since quietly built its stake to around 10%. Irth’s team includes a former Starboard Value employee, which is notable because Starboard previously took a position in Papa John’s and its founder eventually became chairman of the board, a tenure that did not exactly save the brand.
There are no guarantees Papa John’s bites. Another bidder could always emerge, though the list of people genuinely excited about acquiring a struggling pizza chain in 2025 is presumably short.A Qatari-backed fund
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