Peet’s to buy Diedrich Coffee

Irvine-based coffee roaster and distributor Diedrich Coffee Inc. has agreed to be acquired by Peet’s Coffee & Tea Inc. for about $213 million in cash and stock.

The Emeryville, Calif., gourmet coffee retailer, which announced the acquisition after the stock market closed Monday, valued the transaction at $26 for each Diedrich share. That’s 28% above Diedrich’s closing price Monday of $20.36 a share -- and more than 85 times the stock’s low of 30 cents reached last December.

In after-hours trading, Diedrich shares soared to more than $25 a share.

The deal would help Peet’s, which has about 190 coffee shops in the U.S., expand its wholesale business. The company expects to triple its sales of coffee beans at grocery stores in the next five years.

The acquisition also would mark Peet’s entrance into the market for single-cup coffee packets. Diedrich makes K-Cup brand coffee packets for use with a brewing system marketed by Keurig Inc. of Reading, Mass.

“The Diedrich acquisition represents another major strategic growth initiative for our consumer packaged coffee business,” Patrick O’Dea, Peet’s chief executive, said in a statement.

In the fiscal year that ended June 30, Diedrich earned $1.6 million after recording losses totaling $24.8 million in the three preceding fiscal years. It had fiscal 2009 sales of $62.3 million, up 46% from the previous year.

Peet’s stock has risen 49% this year, giving it a total stock market value of $448 million.