CEC Entertainment
CEC Entertainment Holdings, LLC. is an American holding company headquartered in Irving, Texas. It is the parent company of the chain stores Chuck E. Cheese and Peter Piper Pizza and was founded after the former purchased ShowBiz Pizza Time, Inc. in 1998.[1]
History
In 1998, the company renamed itself CEC Entertainment, Inc. Part of this renaming was related to a move from the NASDAQ to the NYSEhttps://cecentertainment.gcs-web.com/ In 1999, CEC Entertainment, Inc. bought out competitor Discovery Zone Chuck E. Cheese's celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2007.[3] Currently, there are 590 open locations throughout North America, South America, and the Middle East.
In 2012, CEC Entertainment announced that their mascot would receive a redesign. Jaret Reddick [2], lead singer of the musical group Bowling for Soup, was hired to become the new voice of Chuck E. Cheese, after having been voiced by Duncan Brannan for 19 years. The Redesign is now animated in CGI. The replacement of Brannan with Reddick was met with backlash [3], but the company issued the following statement: "Brannan was not fired from Chuck E. Cheese's, rather we simply chose to utilize new voice talent for the original music we have written as part of a TV advertising campaign in partnership with The Richards Group. On several occasions prior to the release of Chuck E.'s new single last week, we communicated to Brannan that his primary responsibilities with our in-store entertainment group would not change. There is still plenty of opportunity for Duncan to provide more of his voice talent and services for Chuck E. Cheese's in the future if he chooses to do.”
Financial trouble
The COVID-19 pandemic has been financially damaging to the parent company, and with an estimated $1–2 billion in debt, the possibility exists of all CEC properties being forced to close if bankruptcy refinancing fails.[4] CEC Entertainment solicited $200 million in loans to finance a restructuring under bankruptcy protection.[5] They also filed a voluntary petition under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas on June 25, 2020.[6]
References
- ^ "CEC Entertainment Successfully Completes Financial Restructuring". GCS. Retrieved May 23, 2010.
- ^ "Chuck E Cheese Chain Mascot Gets An Overhaul". csmonitor.com.
- ^ "Chuck E Cheese Transforming Into A Rock Star". chicago.suntimes.com.
- ^ Peterson, Stephen. "Chuck E. Cheese heading to bankruptcy; JC Penney at Emerald Square hanging on". The Sun Chronicle. Archived from the original on June 14, 2020. Retrieved June 14, 2020.
- ^ Haddon, Soma Biswas and Heather (June 7, 2020). "Chuck E. Cheese in Talks With Lenders About Financing Deals". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Archived from the original on December 18, 2020. Retrieved June 14, 2020.
- ^ Shafer, Ellise (June 2, 2020). "Chuck E. Cheese Files for Bankruptcy". Variety. Archived from the original on November 9, 2020. Retrieved June 27, 2020.