Private equity sure does love itself some pizza. But it doesn't always turn dough into dough.Driving the news: LongRange Capital on Tuesday agreed to buy the non-China operations of Pizza Hut from Yum Brands for $1.5 billion (plus up to $75 million in earnouts), with Yum China buying the rest for $1.2 billion.LongRange isn't yet disclosing how it plans to revive the iconic chain, whose sales have slumped despite a shift from eat-in to takeout and delivery.While we wait to see how the deal works out, here's a brief and noncomprehensive look at PE's pizza past:🍕 California Pizza Kitchen: Golden Gate Capital took the company private in 2011 for $470 million, and may have recouped some cash via a 2013 dividend recap before the chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2020.CPK returned to private equity hands late last year, when Consortium Brand Partners and Eldridge Industries bought it for just south of $300 million.🍕 Sbarro: MidOcean Partners bought the food court staple in 2007 for around $450 million, but it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy less than four years later.Sbarro filed for bankruptcy yet again in 2014 and now is controlled by CEO David Karam.🍕 Round Table Pizza: This one went bankrupt before and after private equity got involved, although not during.The California-based chain went Chapter 11 in 2011 and two years later secured growth equity from Summit Partners.It was acquired in 2017 by Global Franchise Group, a portfolio company of Levine Leichtman Capital Partners that then was sold to Lion Capital. FAT Brands bought Round Table for $445 million in 2021, but filed for Chapter 11 earlier this year.🍕 Blaze Pizza: Brentwood Associates acquired a "significant noncontrol" stake in 2020, but growth has recently gone in reverse.The chain closed more than 10% of its stores in 2024 and 2025, keeping with broader industry struggles.🍕 MOD Pizza: The Seattle-based chain raised $160 million from Clayton Dubilier & Rice and other firms in 2019, and seemed to be on track for an IPO with around 500 stores.But it too hit the skids and explored a bankruptcy filing before selling out to Elite Restaurants in 2024.🍕 Domino's: This is an oldie but a goodie.Bain Capital bought the chain from founder Tom Monaghan in 1998 for around $1 billion, at a time when its pizza crust was regularly compared to cardboard.It installed a new CEO named Dave Brandon, who was credited with everything from international expansion to menu revitalization to a successful marketing campaign starring Brandon himself. Domino's went public in 2004 and today has a $10.6 billion market cap.Bain would later tried to repeat the Brandon magic by putting him in charge of Toys 'R Us, but that one didn't work out so well.🍕 Pizza Hut: Not the parent company, but its various franchisee groups.The largest was NPC International, a PE hot potato that moved from Merrill Lynch Global PE (2006) to Olympus Partners (2011) to Eldridge Industries (2018). Olympus booked around a $500 million gain on that last one.It went bankrupt in 2020, and was eventually acquired by PE-backed Flynn Restaurant Group, which now calls itself the largest franchisee of U.S. restaurants.🍕 Papa Johns: No deal here yet, but it's reportedly weighing a $1.5 billion buyout bid from Irth Capital and the chain's largest franchisee. This comes after Apollo pulled the plug on a $2.1 billion offer.