Pizza Hut is owned by Yum! Brands (the United States, NYSE: YUM), which was separated from PepsiCo on 6 October 1997.[1][2] Before Yum! Brands, Pizza Hut was owned by PepsiCo from 1977 to 1997.[2]
Pizza Hut was founded in Wichita in 1958 by two brothers who borrowed $600 from their mother, and the name came from the small building, which had room for only eight letters on the sign. PepsiCo bought it in 1977 and it went to Yum in the 1997 spin-off.
PepsiCo spun off its restaurant business as Tricon Global Restaurants, taking KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell out of the drinks and snacks company. PepsiCo had found that operating restaurants competed for capital with its packaged goods brands and complicated its relationships with other chains. Tricon renamed itself Yum! Brands in 2002.