Yum! Brands, Inc. or Yum! is a United States-based Fortune 500 corporation. Yum! operates or licenses Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut, and WingStreet restaurants worldwide. Prior to 2011, Yum! also owned Long John Silver's and A&W Restaurants.

Based in Louisville, Kentucky, it is the world's largest fast food restaurant company in terms of system units—more than 39,000 restaurants around the world in over 125 countries.[2] In 2011, Yum!'s global sales totaled more than US$12 billion.

History
Tricon Global
Yum! was created on October 7, 1997, as Tricon Global Restaurants, Inc. an independent company, as a result of a spin-out of the former fast food division of PepsiCo, which owned and franchised the KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell brands worldwide. Because of the company's previous relationship with Pepsi, Yum! Brands has a lifetime contract with PepsiCo, with notable exceptions the contracts of franchisees such as HMSHost and college-operated locations with Coca-Cola which override Yum's lifetime PepsiCo contract, along with some scattered KFC franchises across the United States which continue to maintain Coke fountain rights.

Expansion
In March 2002, Tricon announced the acquisition of Lexington, Kentucky-based Yorkshire Global Restaurants, owner of the Long John Silver's and A&W All-American Food chains and its intention to change the company's name to Yum! Brands, Inc. On May 16, 2002, the name change became effective after a vote during the company's annual shareholders meeting, and on June 17, 2002, Yum! executed a two-for-one stock split. Shortly afterwards, due to Yum!'s lifetime contract with Pepsi, Long John Silver's and A&W Restaurants (both of which previously served Coca-Cola) switched to Pepsi products, with A&W retaining A&W Root Beer from a separate deal with Dr Pepper Snapple Group.

In 2003, Yum! launched WingStreet as a hybrid combo unit with an existing Pizza Hut franchise.

International growth
In January 2011, Yum! announced its intentions to divest itself of its Long John Silver's and A&W brands to focus on its core brands of KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. For the decade leading up to the company's announcement, major growth had relied on international expansion. With little presence outside North America, the two chains no longer fit in the company's long-term growth plans.[4] The foreign expansion—particularly that of Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza Hut—was cited in the firm's January 18, 2011 announcement of its intention to sell the A&W and Long John Silver's chains. Both of those chains also suffered from poor sales, and had fewer locations compared to the other chains in the Yum! Brands portfolio. In September 2011, Yum! announced they had found buyers for the A&W and LJS chains. A Great American Brand LLC will buy A&W, and LJS will be acquired by LJS Partners LLC.[5] Yum! Brands had originally purchased the parent company of Long John Silver's and A&W brands in 2003 for $320 million.

In May 2011, Yum! agreed to purchase mainland Chinese hot pot chain Little Sheep for HK$4.56 billion.[6] The deal spent more than 4 months in anti-trust review by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, to determine whether or not the transaction would result in a monopolistic positioning of Yum! in the country's restaurant industry. The Ministry approved the deal in November 2011, according to Little Sheep representatives.[7] By 2011, Yum! was winding down Pizza Hut locations in Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Quebec, Canada, with Kirkland, Quebec following suit the following year.

In 2012, KFC was the first American fast food restaurant to operate in the West Bank; it opened in Ramallah; a Pizza Hut is also planned.

In 2013, a few KFC locations in China supplied chicken found to contain "excess levels of chemical residue". Yum! has lost 6% of sales from publicity in China as of January 25th.