The Bay Area-based café chain Peet's Coffee & Tea is being taken private for about $1 billion, taking the struggling coffee chain private following a sharp drop in its share price on Friday.
The coffee franchise sold for $977.6 million to German conglomerate Joh. A. Benckiser, which works out to be $73.50 a share, a 29 percent premium on Friday's $57.16 closing price, according to the Associated Press.
Peet's has struggled with higher coffee bean costs in recent months. Analysts believe that Peet's a lack of products at grocery stores was a downfall. Other coffee chains like Starbucks, already sell their products at outlets such as grocery stores which serve as an independent revenue stream.
The coffee retailer was founded in 1966 in Berkeley, Calif., by Alfred Peet. Peet's gets more than half its revenue from its coffee shops and the rest from grocery sales, home delivery and sales to food service and offices.
The current management and employees will remain with the company and its headquarters will stay in Emeryville, Calif.
Last spring, Peet's and Starbucks were rumored to be in talks to combine in an effort to boost both brands' presence in grocery stores. Peet's founder Alfred Peet knew the Starbucks founders and sold them coffee beans when they launched their business a few years after Peet's first opened.
