The all-cash transaction, expected to close in the 2Q, will give Palmer a total 32 locations. He founded the first Applebee's in 1980 in Atlanta.

"The sale of the restaurants is in keeping with the company's strategy of evaluating and managing the mix of company and franchise restaurants to meet its profitability and return on equity objectives, while efficiently achieving the long-term development goal of the Applebee's system," Lloyd L. Hill, chairman and chief executive officer of the Overland Park, KS company, says in a prepared statement.

Total sales for the nine company-owned Applebee's restaurants in Atlanta were $18.3 million in 2002. "The company does not expect the transaction to have a significant impact on the company's net earnings for 2003, and no significant gain or loss on either the sale or the closure of the one restaurant is anticipated," Hill says.