BUSINESS

The pizza dining sector has faced hundreds of restaurant closings over the last two years as chains seek to restructure their businesses by closing underperforming locations.

Pizza Hut‘s parent Yum Brands said it would shutter 250 underperforming restaurants as part of its Hut Forward plan in the first half of 2026. Papa John’s announced in its fourth-quarter earnings call that it will close 200 locations by the end of 2026.

And now, Chuck E. Cheese parent CEC Entertainment Concepts LP is not renewing certain leases of locations that no longer make economic sense to operate.

CEC Entertainment Concepts LP has closed at least six Chuck E. Cheese locations in 2026.M. Suhail / Getty Images

Chuck E. Cheese closes 6 locations

The popular arcade pizza chain has closed six restaurant locations so far in 2026, allowing their leases to expire.

The pizza chain closed its Airport Highway location at the Swan Creek Plaza shopping center in Toledo, Ohio, in late August 2026, as its lease expired.

Parent company CEC Entertainment Concepts LP did not give a specific reason for allowing its lease to expire or make a statement regarding the closing, according to Capital Digest.

Chuck E. Cheese, however, will continue operating its restaurant location on Monroe Avenue in Toledo. Both the Airport Highway and Monroe locations opened in 1993.

The restaurant location’s landlord has not yet revealed a replacement tenant at last check.

Last Nebraska location closed

The Toledo closing came almost two months after the pizza chain shuttered its last location in Nebraska, as it permanently closed its restaurant on North 76th Street in Omaha, Neb., on July 2, according to Grow Omaha.

Chuck E. Cheese parent CEC Entertainment Concepts also closed its last remaining Chuck E. Cheese location in Topeka, Kan., on Wanamaker Road, on April 5, 2026. The Wanamaker location opened in 1990.

“It’s not easy to say goodbye,” CEC Entertainment said in a statement. “We are deeply grateful to every family, every birthday kid, and every guest who has walked through our doors over the decades. We know this news will disappoint many longtime guests, and we sincerely thank you for your loyalty.”

“While we are leaving Topeka for now, that does not mean we won’t be back,” the statement asserted. “This community has been part of our story from nearly the very beginning, and we hope it will be again soon.”

Chuck E. Cheese opened its first Topeka location in 1979 at West 29th Street, which the chain subsequently closed. The pizza chain no longer has a location in Topeka.

“Thank you for being part of our Topeka story – a story that spans generations. We will always remember the joy and community you brought to our doors,” the statement concluded.

3 locations closed on April 4

CEC Entertainment closed three locations on April 4, 2026, including another Kansas location in Olathe, according to the Kansas City Star.

“We understand that this news may have an impact on you, and you may visit us at the nearest location in Overland Park, KS,” a sign on the closed location read.

“As leases expire, markets evolve, and consumer preferences shift, we adjust our real estate strategy accordingly,” CEC Entertainment spokesperson Allison Chouinard told The Star.

The company still operates three nearby locations at 9196 N. Skyview Ave. in Kansas City, Mo.’s Northland area, 10510 Metcalf Lane in Overland Park, Kan., and at 18701 E. 39th Street in Independence, Mo.

The company also closed its Chuck E. Cheese location on Buffalo Gap Road in Abilene, Texas, on April 4, according to KTAB-TV, as well as its restaurant on North Salisbury Boulevard in Salisbury, Md., which shut down on the same day, WBOC-TV reported.

“This is how we manage a national footprint across 45 states and should not be interpreted as an indication of financial or operational distress,” CEC Senior Director Alejandra Brady told WBOC.

Restaurant recovers from distress

Chuck E. Cheese, which has over 500 locations in 45 U.S. states, filed for bankruptcy protection in June 2020 after shutting down operations when the Covid-19 pandemic swept through the nation in March 2020.

The arcade pizza chain, which opened its first location in San Jose, Calif., in 1977, restructured its debt, spent $350 million remodeling its locations, and updated its menu.

CEC Entertainment Concepts this year launched a new spinoff concept for adults, Chuck’s Arcade, that seeks to attract consumers who grew up enjoying Chuck E. Cheese pizza and the restaurant’s arcade games.

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Despite typical first-time buyers navigating a challenging housing market in recent history, a growing number of young adults have been able to become homeowners.

For years, The Trade Desk (TTD) gave investors something increasingly difficult to find in advertising technology: consistent growth.

Now the company is getting smaller.

The Trade Desk is cutting nearly 15% of its worldwide staff in a wide restructure that might impact about 575 individuals based on the 3,843 full-time employees the business said it had at the end of 2025.

The cuts arrive after an extraordinary reversal: a 70% drop in The Trade Desk’s stock over the past year and 90% from its late-2024 peak. Its latest quarter saw 3% revenue growth, and management’s guidance suggests even more unusual revenue decline.

But CEO Jeff Green says the firm itself is robust.

That means the layoffs are bigger than another effort to reduce tech costs.

They are a test of whether The Trade Desk can retool itself back to growth as Amazon and a host of other advertising giants become tougher rivals.

The Trade Desk cuts roughly 1 in 7 jobs

The Trade Desk will be around 15% smaller worldwide, Green told staff, in a restructure he described as getting staff into “smaller pods and smaller scrums” with more concentration.

That transition has a price, as the company’s SEC filing shows.

The Trade Desk expects severance and employee benefits to cost $39 million to $51 million in cash restructuring charges. Another $4 million to $5 million stock-compensation reversal should reduce those costs. Third-quarter restructuring should be mostly complete.

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The timing is impossible to overlook.

Second-quarter revenue reached approximately $715 million, increasing only 3% from the prior year. Green acknowledged after the results that the quarter “did not meet the standard we set for ourselves.”

Then came the larger warning.

The Trade Desk said it expected sales of at least $650 million in the third quarter. It earned $739 million in the same quarter a year ago. That would be a loss of almost 12% year-over-year if sales are at the floor of projection.

That’s a big change for a corporation that logged 18% growth in the third quarter only a year ago.

Jeff Green says The Trade Desk is still healthy

But there is an essential wrinkle.

The Trade Desk isn’t framing the job cuts in financial terms.

“Our company is very healthy,” Green told employees, pointing to approximately $1.5 billion in cash and no debt. He also noted that annual revenue has climbed from $202 million when the company went public in 2016 to more than $2.9 billion last year.

Much of that argument is based on the balance sheet.

The Trade Desk had $1.12 billion cash and $362 million short-term investments on June 30.

That makes the 15% labor cut more intriguing. The corporation isn’t laying people off because it’s out of money. Management has significant financial resources, and it is facing serious challenges.

That suggests the more urgent problem is execution.

Finance, revenue, strategy, and marketing leaders, as well as board members, have left The Trade Desk. The company also had a public dispute with Publicis Groupe earlier this year, which they said they resolved.

The Trade Desk’s 70% collapse forces a major rethink.Greg Doherty / Getty Images

Amazon adds pressure to The Trade Desk’s turnaround

The Trade Desk’s task is not taking place in a vacuum.

Its platform enables marketers automate the acquisition of digital ads across websites, streaming television and other media. That has historically given the firm an appealing position as an independent option to ad ecosystems run by corporations that simultaneously hold media inventory.

Green still thinks that difference counts.

In a note to workers, he stressed The Trade Desk’s determination to concentrate on buyers and not own advertising inventory. The business has grabbed just around 1% of what it deems its entire addressable market, he also stated.

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But there are reports that competition has intensified, particularly from Amazon, which has spent years improving its own demand-side advertising platform.

That changes how investors should view the layoffs. Cutting 15% of employees can reduce expenses. Smaller teams could also help The Trade Desk move faster.

Neither automatically fixes slowing demand or competitive pressure.

The Trade Desk’s next quarter becomes a major test

In Green’s statement there is an odd contradiction:

The CEO says The Trade Desk has a healthy business, plenty of liquidity, and enormous room to grow.

The corporation is also cutting almost one in seven jobs as quarterly growth slowed to barely 3%.

And its next goal for revenue is lower.

That makes the $650 million projection for the third quarter perhaps more crucial than the layoffs themselves.

Investors will be looking to see whether the restructure is a short-term reset before growth resumes or an admission that the Trade Desk’s former operational structure was created for a growth pace the firm no longer can achieve.

The balance sheet gives Green time. The competitive environment makes that time valuable.

After a roughly 70% stock decline over the past year, investors have already reacted strongly to The Trade Desk’s slowdown.

Now Green has made his response. The next question is whether cutting 15% of the workforce can make the company grow again.

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When it comes to the so-called Great Wealth Transfer, “I don’t think people should count on it,” one financial adviser says.

And she can maintain her world No. 1 ranking.

A recent research piece by Silvercrest Asset Management Group shows that understanding the Middle East is critical for global capital markets participants.

In mid-August, process engineers at Samsung Electronics Co. (SSNLF) stood on stage in Seoul and said the industry’s most advanced chipmaking machine still was not ready for their factories.

In the week of Sept. 7, Samsung and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM) signed up for it anyway. That kind of reversal rarely happens this fast in an industry that plans in decades, not quarters.

ASML Holding (ASML), the only company in the world that builds extreme ultraviolet lithography machines, confirmed the commitments in a joint statement with TSMC published September 8.

Samsung will use the newest High-NA EUV systems for memory chips starting in 2028. TSMC will follow for logic chips in 2030, according to Bloomberg, joining Intel Corporation (INTC) as the third confirmed customer.

Each machine costs roughly $400 million, according to CNBC. That is the exact price Samsung and TSMC cited in August, when both said they would hold the technology back until nodes near 2030. Three weeks later, they signed a formal joint commitment instead.

Samsung’s timeline matters beyond the lithography roadmap. The company will bring High-NA EUV into memory production as a global shortage of memory chips, driven by AI data center demand, pushes prices higher across electronics, according to Bloomberg.

That shortage gave Samsung a reason to formalize a date instead of leaving it open-ended.

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The objection was never about the technology

The delay was never about whether High-NA machines work. Intel already settled that question by running the systems in production, according to CNBC.

The real question was whether the economics justified the price, since TSMC and Samsung compete on cost per chip, not on owning the newest tool.

That is why the second half of the announcement matters more than the headline. ASML, TSMC and Samsung also agreed to shift from six-inch photomasks, the stencils that print circuit patterns onto silicon, to a larger 12-inch format.

12-inch masks enable greater scanner productivity and allow the industry to meet the demand for smaller, faster, and more energy-efficient chips.

ASML Chief Technology Officer Marco Pieters noted that the bigger masks could lift machine output by 40%. That means fewer machines are needed to produce the same number of chips.

A $400 million machine looks very different once it can print 40% more wafers. That figure, not the sticker price, is what determines what a chip actually costs to make.

The mask initiative, more than the lithography tool itself, appears to be what moved TSMC and Samsung off the sidelines.

The near-term roadmap, as confirmed in the companies’ announcements, breaks down like this:

High-NA EUV systems are already in production at Intel, which took delivery of the equipment before either rival, according to CNBC.

DRAM manufacturing with High-NA EUV is set to begin at Samsung by 2028.

TSMC is targeting logic chip production with High-NA EUV by 2030, with a 12-inch mask pilot line to follow by 2031.

The shift to larger 12-inch photomasks allows chipmakers to increase wafer output by 40%, fundamentally changing the economics of $400 million EUV machines.Oleh Stefaniak / Getty Images

Intel is finally ahead instead of behind

Intel’s position here inverts its own history. The company delayed adopting ASML’s original EUV machines in the 2010s, a decision that let TSMC pull ahead and eventually forced Intel to outsource its most advanced chips.

This time, Intel moved first and is the only company already running High-NA systems in volume production.

For a foundry business still trying to rebuild, being first matters. Intel is using its High-NA lead to court outside customers who need leading-edge capacity.

It is one of the few technical advantages Intel can currently claim over TSMC.

TSMC’s exposure to ASML is bigger than it looks

ASML trades on Nasdaq and Euronext Amsterdam under the ticker ASML, and the stock has climbed roughly 120% over the past year, according to CNBC.

TSMC alone accounts for about 16% of ASML’s revenue, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That concentration cuts in both directions.

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It gives ASML unusual visibility into future demand whenever a customer of TSMC’s size signs a multiyear commitment. It also means ASML’s growth is tied to the capital spending decisions of three companies, since Samsung and Intel round out its largest customers.

A slowdown at any one of them would show up quickly in ASML’s order book.

AI chip capacity is a decade-long project

The most overlooked detail in this week’s announcement is the timeline. ASML and TSMC are targeting a pilot line for 12-inch masks by 2031, with full production readiness by 2033, according to the companies’ press release. That is seven years from now.

For investors who treat AI chip shortages as a problem that more capital can fix within a year or two, that timeline is a useful correction.

The equipment that will make next-generation AI chips affordable is still being designed, and the companies that build it are only now agreeing on its format.

The bottleneck in AI hardware is not closing soon. It is being built for the 2030s, one commitment at a time.

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T-Mobile, which is owned by Deutsche Telekom, continues to cut a key part of its operations after months of significant workforce changes. 

As the carrier undergoes a digital transformation, announced by CEO Srini Gopalan late last year, it has quietly conducted several rounds of job cuts in December, March and April, affecting employees in departments such as consumer and retail, sales, etc.

It also reportedly began shrinking its authorized retail location footprint earlier this year, resulting in additional layoffs. 

Amid these workforce changes, Deutsche Telekom revealed in its second-quarter 2026 earnings report that T-Mobile’s U.S. headcount dropped from 70,036 employees on Dec. 31, to 65,365 by June 30, “primarily due to the impact of the 2025-2026 Workforce Transformation.”

T-Mobile closes more stores and lays off employees

T-Mobile is officially continuing to enforce these changes as it plans to lay off 77 workers in Washington state, according to a WARN notice it filed with the state Employment Security Department on Aug. 21.

The latest round of job cuts stems from several closures, including six retail locations and one corporate office.

The layoffs are expected to occur between Sept. 21 and Nov. 18, and they will impact employees such as managers, directors, mobile experts, and senior analysts in departments including technology, HR, product, and engineering.  

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In the notice, T-Mobile clarifies that these job cuts are expected to be permanent. It also states that a “subset of the layoffs are due to relocation,” as in some cases, employees have been offered the opportunity to relocate. 

The move from T-Mobile comes as layoffs are on the rise nationwide. Employers in the U.S. announced 52,881 job cuts in August, up 58% from the 33,429 cuts announced in July, according to recent data from Challenger, Gray & Christmas. 

Approximately 4,113 of the layoffs announced in August were from the telecommunications industry. 

Matt Walker, chief analyst at MTN Consulting, said in a report from Mobile Europe in May that artificial intelligence has recently become the leading reason for layoffs in the telecom industry as more companies aim to cut costs.  

“The telco workforce has been shrinking for years due to layoffs, retirement and attrition, while the employee profile is also changing,” said Walker. 

“Telcos increasingly value skills in software, cloud, AI and quantum computing,” he continued. “Operators have long automated incrementally, but many now frame their strategy explicitly around AI as AI has become a major theme in the telco C-suite.”

T-Mobile is laying off 77 employees in Washington State.M. Suhail / Getty Images

T-Mobile doubles down on T-Life transformation

T-Mobile’s recent cuts also come as it ramps up efforts to encourage more of its customers and employees to use its T-Life app to streamline operations, another change that reflects the company’s ongoing digital transformation. 

This includes rolling out a digital switching tool on the app late last year. The company also plans to make customers and employees 100% dependent on the T-Life app to process phone upgrades and add new lines.

In July, T-Mobile also reportedly stopped allowing customer support representatives to manually process bill payments and set up autopay for customers. This change requires customers to complete these tasks in the T-Life app or on the T-Mobile website.

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More recently, the company has begun requiring customers to use the T-Life app to check in at a few of its stores.

In a memo sent to employees in May, T-Mobile Chief Operating Officer Jon Freier said that the company’s “T-Life transformation” is about “perfecting the customer experience and modernizing ways of serving customers.”

Freier also said that this transition is successfully reducing reliance on customer service representatives to set up accounts for new customers. 

“There are 30% fewer calls to Customer Care when a new customer joins T-Mobile through T-Life,” he said.  

As the company leans further into becoming digital-first, it expects to achieve about $3 billion in savings by 2027 from its AI and digital initiatives. 

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Why we love this deal

Sheds are an easy way to add extra space in your yard. They can house everything from lawn mowers to firewood to a bicycle. Even if you have a garage, it frees up so much space and provides a lot more organization for your outdoor essentials. But if you’ve ever looked up how much a shed can cost, you won’t be surprised that a high-quality option can cost thousands of dollars. 

If you’re looking for a budget-friendly option and portability, you’re in luck. You can get portable storage sheds for under $100, especially if you know where to look. The Erommy 5-by-7-Foot Portable Storage Shed is on sale at Walmart for only $90, and it’s a bestseller that you’re going to want to grab while it’s discounted during a limited-time Flash deal.

Erommy 5-by-7-Foot Portable Storage Shed, $90 (was $100) at Walmart

Courtesy of Walmart

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Why do shoppers love it?

Measuring 5 feet long and 7.2 inches wide, this portable shed offers extra storage without taking up too much space. Since it’s portable, you can set it up anywhere without having to worry about building a foundation, and you don’t need to stick to just one spot if you need to move it. 

However, just because it’s portable doesn’t mean it’s not durable, as shoppers say the shed is “strong” and “sturdy.” The powder-coated steel frame is resistant to chipping, rust, and corrosion, and it’s grounded with anchors to keep it in place, despite wind or harsh weather. The cover is made of three layers of 190-gram PE material. With a coating, it’s waterproof, tear-resistant, and UV-resistant. 

The shed has a roller shutter door design that not only protects your belongings but also makes it easy to access them. It rolls up for a wide opening, and it’s secured with hook-and-loop tape to quickly roll it up and down when inclement weather is expected.

Its portability and durability are easily some of the biggest benefits of this storage shed, but we can’t forget to highlight how versatile it is. It can be used for a variety of items, including storing your motorcycle or bike, firewood for fall night fires, gardening supplies, and lawn care equipment. You can also use it beyond storage, setting it up for extra shelter during outdoor parties and tailgating, along with markets or trade shows. 

Related: Walmart is selling a 3-piece patio set with a glass coffee table for only $70

Details to know

Dimensions: 5 feet long by 7.2 feet wide by 5.4 feet tall.

Material: Steel frame and PE cover.

Features: Waterproof, UV resistance, and tear resistance.

Walmart shoppers say the storage shed is “solid” and “perfect for cheap storage.” One reviewer said it’s a great place to store their lawnmower.

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Homall 6-by-3-Foot Outdoor Storage Shed, $69 (was $120) at Walmart

Sunmthink 6-by-8-Foot Portable Shed, $100 (was $135) at Walmart

Walsunny 6-by-6-Foot Storage Shed, $70 (was $170) at Walmart

The Erommy 5-by-7-Foot Portable Storage Shed is on sale for just $90, and it’s a great storage option that won’t break the bank.