<Tr> <Th> Website </Th> <Td> <P> www.bk.com </P> This box: <Ul> <Li> view </Li> <Li> talk </Li> <Li> edit </Li> </Ul> </Td> </Tr> <Ul> <Li> view </Li> <Li> talk </Li> <Li> edit </Li> </Ul> <P> The predecessor to what is now the international fast food restaurant chain Burger King was founded in 1953 in Jacksonville, Florida, as Insta - Burger King . Inspired by the McDonald brothers' original store location in San Bernardino, California, the founders and owners, Keith J. Kramer and his wife's uncle Matthew Burns, began searching for a concept . After purchasing the rights to two pieces of equipment called "Insta" machines, the two opened their first stores around a cooking device known as the Insta - Broiler . The Insta - Broiler oven proved so successful at cooking burgers, they required all of their franchises to carry the device . After the original company began to falter in 1959, it was purchased by its Miami, Florida, franchisees James McLamore and David R. Edgerton . The two initiated a corporate restructuring of the chain; the first step being to rename the company Burger King . The duo ran the company as an independent entity for eight years, eventually expanding to over 250 locations in the United States, when they sold it to the Pillsbury Company in 1967 . </P> <P> Pillsbury's management made several attempts at reorganization or restructuring of the restaurant chain in the late 1970s and early 1980s . The most prominent change came in 1978 when Burger King hired McDonald's executive Donald N. Smith to help revamp the company . In a plan called Operation Phoenix, Smith initiated a restructuring of corporate business practices at all levels of the company . Changes to the company included updated franchise agreements, a broadening of the menu, and new store designs to standardize the look and feel of the company . While these efforts were initially effective, many of them were eventually discarded, resulting in Burger King falling into a fiscal slump that damaged the financial performance of both Burger King and its parent . Poor operating performance and ineffectual leadership continued to bog the company down for many years, even after it was acquired in 1989 by the British entertainment conglomerate Grand Metropolitan and its successor Diageo . Eventually, the institutional neglect of the brand by Diageo damaged the company to the point where major franchises were driven out of business and its total value was significantly decreased . Diageo eventually decided to divest itself of the loss - making chain and put the company up for sale in 2000 . </P>

Which came first mcdonald's or burger king