Based on Hunterbrook Media’s reporting, Hunterbrook Capital is short $PZZA at the time of publication. Positions may change at any time. See full disclosures below.
Papa Johns International ($PZZA) stock surged more than 18% today on what appears to be a scheme using fake news distribution websites to spread false reports of a $65-per-share acquisition offer from private equity firm TriArtisan Capital Advisors.
The move follows last week’s report that Apollo had withdrawn an unrelated $64 offer for Papa Johns, priming traders to react to M&A talk in the name after PZZA’s recent earnings. The stock fell over 20% after Reuters broke the news that Apollo was not moving forward.
A “person familiar with the matter” told Seeking Alpha today’s “report is not true.” After publication, a source close to Papa Johns told Hunterbrook the acquisition rumors were not credible. “We knew it wasn’t credible and reporters have been writing this nonetheless,” they said.
After the publication of this article, Bloomberg News updated its reporting to include: “A person familiar with Papa John’s [sic] who asked not to be identified told Bloomberg News there were no discussions with TriArtisan.”
By the morning of Tuesday, November 11, the “ABC Money” article on the acquisition appeared to be deleted entirely.
Here is our best understanding of how the rumor spread. (This article was last updated at 7:39am EST on Tuesday, November 11 with additional confirmation).
The Fake News Network
The earliest version identified by Hunterbrook appeared on BusinessMole, crediting a post on NewsReleases.co.uk, a WordPress‑based feed that openly solicits businesses to “get featured” by emailing advertise@newsreleases.co.uk.
BusinessMole’s page lists “Newsteam PR” as the poster and shows a “Last updated” time of 1:26 pm (UK), roughly an hour before the U.S. stock market opened.
The article was then picked up more widely after it was syndicated by a website called ABC Money, which investors may have mistaken for ABC News. In fact, ABC Money is a UK-based company that is in receivership, and appears to be a spoof of ABC.
On its “about us” page, ABC Money purports to have a writing team, with multiple staff journalists.
When Hunterbrook ran those profile photos through reverse image search, most appear to have been stolen from other sources, and did not match the names listed on ABC Money’s site.
ABC Money — which did not respond to Hunterbrook Media’s request for comment — also appears to be using a logo that looks eerily similar to that of the actual ABC.
The ABC Money article was cited by both Seeking Alpha and Barron’s in their coverage of the rumor. It was later deleted.
Papa Johns’ investor relations site carried no announcement Monday, and no SEC filing has been posted to corroborate a transaction. TriArtisan did not issue a statement. A principal at TriArtisan picked up the phone but did not respond to request for comment. Barron’s, which cited ABC Money’s report in its own article, reported both Papa Johns and TriArtisan declined comment.
Another widely-syndicated article about this acquisition came from a website called Backyard Garden Lover. The headline: “Private Equity’s Appetite Grows as TriArtisan Eyes $2.7 Billion Take-Private of Papa John’s.”
That article was cached on Google over 120 websites, despite the fact that Backyard Garden Lover appears to be, well, a gardening blog. After the publication of this article, Backyard Garden Lover issued a retraction and changed the author’s name.
The article’s alleged author called herself a “Women’s Wellness and Luxury Travel Writer” on what appears to be her Instagram. When Hunterbrook reached her for comment following publication of this article, she was traveling internationally and claimed not to know about the story.
“Definitely not me. I just got off a long flight and have had a few people reach out to me about this. I have no idea what this is.”
“I have one more flight and then I’m gonna start digging into this. My god. I don’t even know where to start,” she messaged Hunterbrook. “So much for relaxing… Thanks for telling me but this is so damn weird.”
She then posted to Instagram: “Feeling happy to land in Taipei only to be bombarded with messages and emails about some dumb ass using my name in a byline that I didn’t write.”
Sam Koppelman is a New York Times best-selling author who has written books with former United States Attorney General Eric Holder and former United States Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal. He helped build Fenway Strategies into one of the preeminent strategic communications firms in the country—with side quests speechwriting for Michael Bloomberg, running the surrogate remarks operation on the Biden-Harris campaign, and co-founding Mayday, which is now one of the leading information providers on how to access reproductive health care in states with bans. Sam has published in the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Time Magazine, and other outlets — and occasionally volunteers on a fire speech for a good cause. He has a BA in Government from Harvard, where he was named a John Harvard Scholar and wrote op-eds like “Shut Down Harvard Football,” which he tells us were great for his social life.
Blake Spendley joined Hunterbrook from the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA), where he led investigations as a Research Specialist for the Marine Corps and US Navy. He built and owns the leading open-source intelligence (OSINT) account on X/Twitter, called @OSINTTechnical (over 1 million followers), which also distributes Hunterbrook Media reporting. His OSINT research has been published in Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal, and The Economist, among other top business outlets. He has a B.A. in Political Science from USC.
Till Daldrup is an investigative journalist who joined Hunterbrook from The Wall Street Journal, where he focused on open-source investigations and content verification. In 2023, he was part of a team of reporters who won a Gerald Loeb Award for an investigation that revealed how Russia is stealing grain from occupied parts of Ukraine. He has an M.A. in Journalism from New York University and a B.S. in Social Sciences from University of Cologne. He’s also an alum of the Cologne School of Journalism (Kölner Journalistenschule).