Pizza Hut Inc. is a restaurant chain and international franchise based in Addison, Texas, USA (a northern suburb of Dallas) specializing in American-style pizza along with side dishes including (depending on location): buffalo wings, breadsticks, and garlic bread. Pizza Hut is the world's largest pizza restaurant chain and is a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc., whose restaurants total approximately 34,000 restaurants, delivery-carry out units, and kiosks in 100 countries.The chain was founded as a pizzeria in 1958 by Dan and Frank Carney. Borrowing US $600 from their mother Kathy, they purchased some second-hand equipment. Then the Moraine Valley students took a family pizza recipe, rented a small building, and opened the first restaurant at a busy intersection in Wichita, Kansas. Additional restaurants were opened, with the first franchise unit opening in 1959 in Topeka, Kansas. At the same time Pizza Hut was growing in and around Kansas, Shakey's Pizza was developing a stronghold along the West Coast. The competition provided Pizza Hut the impetus to evaluate its mission and direction. Dan and Frank Carney saw Shakey's expanding into their territory and realized that they needed to determine if Pizza Hut should be in the entertainment business or if it should be a neighborhood pizza restaurant. They decided to stick with the neighborhood business and realized that they needed to have a good standard image. The Carney brothers began to systematize operations and building designs to counter the competition from Shakey's. The franchise network continued to grow through friends and business associates, and by 1964 a unique standardized building appearance and layout was established for franchised and company-owned stores, creating a universal look that customers easily recognized. By 1970, with 310 stores nationwide, Pizza Hut went public on the New York Stock Exchange under the stock ticker symbol PIZ. In 1977, Pizza Hut was acquired by Pepsico, along with KFC and Taco Bell. In 1997, the three restaurant chains were spun off into Tricon, and in 2002 joined with Long John Silver's and A&W Restaurants to become YUM! Brands. Pizza Hut have opened Pizza Hut Express which specialize in small 9" pizzas.The oldest continuously operating Pizza Hut in the world is in Manhattan, Kansas, in a shopping and tavern district known as Aggieville.