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Quality Dining to go private

Quality Dining Inc., which owns Grady's American Grill, Papa Vino's Italian Kitchen and Spageddies Italian Kitchen and operates Burger Kings and Chili's Grill & Bar's as a franchisee, has signed a merger agreement with Fitzpatrick Group to take the company private. A group of five shareholders, led

by QDI Merger Corp. CEO Fitzpatrick, will purchase all the outstanding stock of Quality Dining owned by the public shareholders. The purchase by Fitzpatrick's group, which owns about 44.7 percent of the outstanding shares, will take the form of a merger in which Quality Dining will survive as a privately held corporation. The transaction is expected to be completed in early 2005.

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