
What the hell is the Starbucks deal?
The coffee giant is buying the Costa Coffee chain for $3.4 billion in a deal that will be completed within the next two years, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz said on Friday.
The acquisition will help Starbucks expand its Costa Coffee business in the U.S. and abroad.
The Starbucks deal is expected to be completed by the end of the year, Schultz said.
Schultz told reporters the deal would be “one of the biggest deals in the world” and the deal could have been done sooner.
“Costco is going to be a very, very big business in Costa Rica,” Schultz said at a news conference.
“We’re going to have to build a lot of new things in Costa Rico, in the United States, in Europe, in Asia, all the way around the world.”
The deal includes Starbucks co-founder Howard Schultz and two other Starbucks executives as well as three other Starbucks directors.
Starbucks said in a statement that Schultz and Starbucks Chief Executive Officer Howard Schultz will be joining Costa Rica’s new board of directors and that the deal is subject to regulatory approval.
Starbucks and Costa Rica already have a long-standing business relationship and the two nations have cooperated on infrastructure projects in the country, Schultz added.
Costa Rica is home to the world’s largest coffee and espresso company, Costa Coffee.
Starbucks has about 7,000 employees in Costa Rican stores and a fleet of about 30,000 coffee machines, according to the company.
Costas Coffee, a small but growing coffee chain that specializes in Costa Ricans Costa Rican coffees, has a long history of expanding its coffee and specialty brands and adding more outlets.
This is the first acquisition in a new Starbucks strategy in Costa.
Last year, the company sold its coffee business to Starbucks’ parent company, Starbucks Coffee Roasters.
The company plans to build and expand its coffee-growing operations in Costa and Costa Rican cities in the future, Schultz and other Starbucks officials have said.
Costa, Costa Rica has seen strong growth in coffee sales.
The coffee industry in Costa has become a key source of foreign exchange for Costa Ricos exporters, with coffee exports reaching $7.5 billion in the first quarter of this year, according the Costa Rican Ministry of Finance.
Costacruan, which has a population of just over 50 million people, is one of the most expensive countries to grow coffee.
The country is also the country with the highest per capita consumption of coffee in the Americas.