ShowBiz Pizza was accused of breaching a franchise agreement by using Chuck E. Cheese's trade secrets, including floor plans, financial projections, and animatronics research, to start a rival chain.
The judge rejected the request for a preliminary injunction, allowing ShowBiz Pizza to continue expanding without immediate legal restraint.
Chuck E. Cheese raised $12.5 million during its IPO, exceeding the initial goal of just over $8 million.
Bushnell aimed to build Chuck E. Cheese into the largest arcade chain in America, create new cartoon stars, develop video games, and even make robots, ultimately forming a tech empire.
Robert Brock opened 13 ShowBiz Pizza restaurants in the brand's first year.
ShowBiz Pizza had to pay $750,000 upfront and a cut from its gross sales for 14 years, totaling an estimated $50 million.
The crash led to a decline in revenue for both chains, as their restaurants heavily relied on video game arcades, which were no longer as popular.
Chuck E. Cheese lost $75 million in the last four months of 1983.
ShowBiz Pizza merged with Chuck E. Cheese to save both businesses from bankruptcy, as the animatronic pizza craze was fading, and the video game market crash had severely impacted their revenues.
The new slogan introduced in 1988 was 'Where a kid can be a kid.'
It’s 1982, and after months of bitter fighting, Nolan Bushnell of Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza Time Theater and Robert Brock of ShowBiz Pizza Place finally strike a legal truce. With the video game market crashing and the novelty of their brands fading, Chuck E. Cheese faces mounting debt and is forced to file for bankruptcy. ShowBiz Pizza, also feeling the economic strain, realizes their only chance to survive is by merging with their former rival. But is combining forces enough to revive these ailing businesses?
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