Here’s a new one to add to your list …

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Written by Alternative Information Center (AIC)

Starbucks is to offer SodaStream a 30 percent premium on its market price with the purchase of 10 percent of its shares

Despite the ongoing campaign to boycott SodaStream due to its production plant in Mishor Adumim Industrial Zone, Starbucks is in advanced talks to acquire 10 percent of SodaStream at a company value of $1.1 billion, reports Globe, the Israeli economic newspaper. The newspaper adds that sources close to the deal say that an official announcement will be made soon.

Globes states that Starbucks’ offer reflects a 30 percent premium on SodaStream market price, with the total value of SodaStream’s issued shares at $850 million.

Market sources have previously believed that SodaStream was seeking a partner, like the partnership between Coca-Cola Company and coffee machine maker Green Mountain Coffee Roasters. The two companies plan to launch a home soda maker machine next year, which would make carbonated beverages from Coca-Cola syrups.

February’s acquisition of 10 percent of Green Mountain by Coca-Cola for $1.25 billion sent SodaStream’s share price tumbling amid market fears of Coca-Cola’s massive entry into the home beverages maker market.

Some months earlier, the Israeli maker of home soda machines hired Hollywood actress Scarlett Johansson as the company’s global brand ambassador in the hope of boosting its earnings in financial markets.

However, amid growing criticism of businesses profiting from the Israeli occupation, SodaStream shares were in freefall in the first quarter of 2014.

SodaStream is a company registered in the Netherlands and Israel and its main production site is in Mishor Edomin, the industrial park of Ma’aleh Adumim, an Israeli settlement in the West Bank.

A report by Who Profits, entitled ‘SodaStream: A Case Study for Corporate Activity in Illegal Israeli Settlements’, details that the violations perpetrated by the company include its location on expropriated land, its treatment of Palestinian workers, and its mislabeling of products.

Mishor Adumim is one of 17 industrial parks that Israel has established in the occupied Palestinian territories in order to benefit Israeli settlements. The Industrial Park is located on 30,000 dunams of expropriated Palestinian land. The settlement of Ma’ale Adumim directly benefits from SodaStream through the taxes the company pays to the municipality, which directly support the development of infrastructure and services in the settlement.

If Starbucks does purchase a share in SodaStream it will become accomplice to the company’s policies and a likely target for boycott.