About 15 years ago, prior to his death, Dave Thomas was is Halifax, Nova Sctia to accept an honorary degree from St Mary's University ( go Huskies ) It was during that trip he had been exposed to Tim's. Wendy's ( or it's parent company ) showed intrest and bought all of the TimH's. Just recently ( one or two years they expanded into the US. For a franchisee, they are gold mines
One of it's two foundrs, Ron Joyce sold some of his stock a few years back for $240,000,000 dollars ( he bought the rights to the whole deal from his partners widow for a few hundred grand and a new cadillac. ) Her kids tried to take it to court.
Dave Thomas's company ( who ever runs it now ) own Tim's, they would need to sell it off, do an IPO and go frm there. I'd be curious to see if it comes about.
Beef
Dave Thomas was also the first and largest franchisee of KFC. He then started Wendys