Peet's extends its Diedrich exchange offer again

Emeryville, Calif. Peet's Coffee & Tea extended for a second time its exchange offer to buy coffee wholesaler Diedrich Coffee.

Peet's is offering a combination of cash and stock valued at $26 per share, compared with a competing offer by Green Mountain Coffee Roasters of $35 per share.

Peet's Coffee and Tea had agreed to buy Diedrich before Green Mountain stepped in and paid Peet's an $8.5 million termination fee.

The Peet's exchange offer is now set to expire on May 7. Last month, Peet's extended the exchange offer until April 2. All other terms of the offer remain unchanged.

About 12,601 shares of Diedrich common stock had been tendered and not withdrawn as of Friday.

Diedrich has about 5.7 million shares outstanding.

Green Mountain has been on a buying spree of late. It bought Tully's Coffee brand and a wholesale coffee business from Tully's Coffee Corp. in March 2009 for $40.3 million. The company also purchased Toronto specialty coffee company Timothy's in November for $157 million, including the Timothy's World Coffee brand and wholesale business but not the retail operations.