Taco Bell is owned by Yum! Brands (the United States, NYSE: YUM), which was separated from PepsiCo on 6 October 1997.[1][2] Before Yum! Brands, Taco Bell was owned by PepsiCo from 1978 to 1997.[2]
Taco Bell was founded in California in 1962 by Glen Bell, who had watched the queues at a Mexican restaurant opposite his hot dog stand and worked out how to make hard-shell tacos quickly. PepsiCo acquired it in 1978 and it moved to Yum in 1997.
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.