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Ninety Nine Restaurants could be headed toward a sale, a report from the Boston Globe claims , and representatives for the pub chain declined to confirm or deny these rumors.
Cannae Holdings is the parent company to both Ninety Nine Restaurants and rapidly dying sister brand, O'Charley's. The holdings company — a spinoff of Fidelity National Financial Inc. — is mainly focused on athletics and owns multiple European football and rugby clubs.
Earlier this year, Cannae told investors that it was undergoing a strategic review of its holdings, hoping to narrow its investments to sports and entertainment.
The first result of that strategic review came earlier this month when struggling brand O'Charley's abruptly shuttered all corporate locations, with a few franchised restaurants lingering to hold on as much as possible.
At its peak in the 2000s, O'Charley's operated nearly 250 restaurants but by July, was down to just 47 locations.
Ninety Nine Restaurants has been the more successful of the two Cannae Holdings restaurant brands, though sales growth was flat in 2025, according to Technomic data.
Founded in 1952 by Charles Doe, the chain is named after its original address: 99 State Street. The brand expanded throughout New England in the decades following and was sold to O'Charley's in 2002.
According to the Boston Gobe, Cannae CEO Ryan Caswell promised investors there would be sale proceeds and recently hinted that he already had a buyer lined up, though more time was needed to secure financing.
"Unfortunately, we do not have any updates at the time other than what has already been shared publicly," a spokesperson for Ninety Nine Restaurants told Nation's Restaurant News. "Ownership changes in the restaurant business are not uncommon. Regardless of any decisions made at the ownership level, we will continue to operate as business as usual and focus on serving our loyal guests in New England."
Ninety Nine Restaurants currently operates more than 90 restaurants across the Northeast.
Contact Joanna at joanna.fantozzi@informa.com
