Vermont-based Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. has wrapped up its buy of Irvine-based coffee seller Diedrich Coffee Inc. after clearing regulatory hurdles.
Diedrich was bought Tuesday for $290 million in cash by Green Mountain, which in December prevailed over Emeryville-based Peet’s Coffee & Tea Inc. in a bidding war.
The Federal Trade Commission on Monday said it closed an investigation into Green Mountain’s acquisition of Diedrich, a move that cleared the way for the deal to go through.
In January, regulators asked Green Mountain and Diedrich for more details about the deal under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvement Act of 1976.
The inquiry likely had to do with sales of a new type of single brewing cups known as K-Cups, which Green Mountain will control with the purchase of Diedrich.
K-Cups allow you to brew a single cup of coffee in a special machine by putting one of the K-Cups into the slot where coffee grounds and a filter would go on other machines.
Green Mountain’s Keurig Inc. unit owns the K-Cup brand and grants licenses for others to produce them. Diedrich was one of a handful of K-Cup licensees.
Green Mountain has sought to consolidate production and sales of K-Cups over the past two years.
Green Mountain bought Tully’s Coffee brand and wholesale coffee business from Washington-based Tully’s Coffee Corp. in last March and Toronto specialty coffee company Timothy’s Coffees of the World Inc. last November.
Producing and selling K-Cups is about twice as profitable as collecting royalties from licensees.
