WATERBURY , Vt., Keurig Green Mountain, the “K” in K-Cups and manufacturer of single-serve coffee packs and coffee makers, was sold to an equity firm for $13.9 billion.
An investment group led by Luxembourg-based private equity firm JAB Holding Co., which includes global coffee and tea seller Jacobs Douwe Egberts of the Netherlands, agreed to buy Keurig for $92 per outstanding share in cash, a premium of nearly 80 percent over Keurig’s Dec. 4 closing stock price. Although shares in Keurig are down 61 percent for the year, news of the sale pushed the stock price up by 76 percent, to more than $90, in Monday pre-market trading.
Keurig’s board of directors unanimously approved the sale, as has the Coca-Cola Co., Keurig’s largest shareholder.
The deal comes weeks after the rollout of Keurig’s KOLD system, which makes carbonated single-serving drinks at home. With the K-Cup system of individually brewed cups of coffee, Keurig revolutionized coffee making, and offers several hundred flavors of coffee in one-time use containers.
“Keurig Green Mountain represents a major step forward in the creation of our global coffee platform. It is a fantastic company that uniquely brings together premium coffee brands and new beverage dispensing technologies like the famous Keurig single-serve machine,” JAB Chairman Bart Becht said in a statement.
The deal is the latest by JAB, which is positioning itself as a rival to Nestle, the largest global coffee company.
By Ed Adamczyk
UPI NEWS
