A look at 41 years in the life of one of America’s most successful restaurant and game parlors. Also see: Little Rock’s Original Fern Bar: How Buster’s Birthed Dave & Buster’s
April 1974 — Dave Corriveau opens Cash McCool’s Saloon & Game Parlor in Little Rock. He sells the business in October 1975.
1977 — Corriveau and Larry “Goose” Garrison open Slick Willy’s World of Entertainment in Union Station in Little Rock. (Garrison would later invest in and eventually own the White Water Tavern. He died in 2014.)
Sept. 15, 1978 — James “Buster” Corley, Corriveau and Garrison open Buster’s Bar & Restaurant next door to Slick Willy’s.
Dec. 2, 1982 — Corley and Corriveau spend $3 million to open Dave & Buster’s in a 40,000-SF warehouse in Dallas. They do $3.5 million in business their first year.
June 1986 — The original Buster’s in Little Rock is sold to Elco Inc.
1988 — Corley and Corriveau open their second Dave & Buster’s in Dallas.
1989 — To fund expansion, the partners sell an 80 percent stake in Dave & Buster’s to Edison Brothers Stores Inc. of St. Louis.
1991 — The third Dave & Buster’s, a 53,000-SF complex, opens in Houston.
1992 — The fourth Dave & Buster’s opens in Atlanta.
1994 — The fifth D&B, a 70,000-SF complex costing $11 million, opens in Philadelphia. “It’s among the largest restaurant investments ever made in this area,” Ronald N. Gorodesky, president of the Restaurant Advisory Services in Wayne, Pennsylvania, tells the Philadelphia Daily News. “A lot of hotels are in that range. It’s a lot of money.”
1995 — Edison Brothers spins off Dave & Buster’s to its shareholders, and D&B goes public on Nasdaq, moving in 1999 to the NYSE. With the infusion of cash, D&B accelerates its expansion in the United States and reaches a licensing agreement with Bass Plc. to open a chain of Dave & Buster’s locations in the United Kingdom.
1999 — The company begins the year with 17 locations in 11 states.
Aug. 27, 1999 — Dave & Buster’s stock falls 45 percent after the company warns that second-quarter earnings will fall below forecasts. Expansion continues but at a slower pace.
December 2001 — Dave & Buster’s reports a $1.87 million loss for the third quarter ended Nov. 4 compared with a $1.5 million profit a year earlier.
April 8, 2003 — Still suffering from the economic fallout of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Dave & Buster’s reports that fourth-quarter revenue fell 5 percent to just below $100 million and profit fell 32 percent to $3.2 million.
April 10, 2003 — Dave & Buster’s, now with 32 stores and 7,500 employees, separates the chairman and CEO roles. Peter Edison is named chairman, Corley CEO and Corriveau president. Corriveau and Corley, who previously had served as co-CEOs, take 20 percent pay cuts and implement other cost-cutting measures.
Dec. 9, 2005 — An affiliate of Wellspring Capital Management LLC, a New York private equity firm, announces that it will buy Dave & Buster’s, with 46 locations in the U.S. and Canada, for $375 million or $18.05 per share.
March 8, 2006 — The Wellspring buyout taking Dave & Buster’s private is completed.
Sept. 12, 2006 — Steve King, who joined D&B as chief financial officer in March 2006, succeeds Corley as CEO. Corley is named chairman emeritus.
March 16, 2007 — Corriveau steps down as president and director.
July 2008 — Dave & Buster’s files to go public again in order to raise $170 million, but a weak market and the financial crisis stymie the effort.
May 3, 2010 — Oak Hill Capital Partners, a private equity firm from Menlo Park, California, agrees to buy Dave & Buster’s, with 56 stores, for $570 million.
July 18, 2011 — Dave & Buster’s again files for an initial public offering, setting a fundraising target of $150 million.
Oct. 4, 2012 — D&B, noting volatility in the markets, cancels its IPO.
March-May 2014 — A number of private equity firms begin courting Dave & Buster’s, with one bidding $1 billion and another later bidding $1.1 billion, according to published reports.
Sept. 8, 2014 — D&B once again files for an IPO.
Oct. 10, 2014 — Dave & Buster’s goes public under the Nasdaq symbol PLAY in an IPO priced at $16 a share.
Feb. 7, 2015 — Dave Corriveau dies in Dallas at 63.
April 8, 2015 — Senate Bill 745, sponsored by Arkansas state Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson, becomes Act 1209, raising the cap on how much a player of arcade games can win, thus clearing the way for Dave & Buster’s to open in Little Rock.
Now — Dave & Buster’s has 10,900 employees and 73 stores and reported net income last year of $7.6 million on revenue of $746.8 million.
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