Ray Kroc bought the McDonald brothers’ equity in McDonald’s in 1961. The purchase gave Kroc control of the company founded by Richard and Maurice McDonald.
Kroc first encountered the brothers’ San Bernardino restaurant in 1954, when he was selling Prince Castle milkshake mixers. He was impressed by the restaurant’s unusually efficient Speedee Service System and became its national franchise agent. In 1955, he opened a McDonald’s restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois.
The relationship eventually became strained. Kroc wanted much faster expansion and tighter uniformity than the brothers did, while the brothers preferred to preserve greater control over their original operation. In 1961, Kroc purchased their equity for $2.7 million.
The sale is sometimes described loosely as Kroc “founding” McDonald’s, but the brothers had already created the restaurant and its operating system in the 1940s. Kroc’s major historical role was turning that system into a vast, standardized franchise corporation. International expansion began later, including restaurants in Canada and Puerto Rico in 1967.