JAB, the owner of Caribou Coffee and Peet's Coffee & Tea, said on Wednesday it would buy U.S. bakery chain Panera Bread in a deal valued at about $7.5 billion, including debt, as it expands its coffee and breakfast empire.

JAB Holdings offered $315 in cash per Panera share, representing a 20.3 percent premium to the stock's closing price on March 31, the last trading day before media reports of a potential deal.

Panera shares had risen about 4.6 percent from March 31 through Tuesday's close of $274. The stock jumped nearly another 13 percent to $309.49 in premarket trading on Wednesday.

Luxembourg-based JAB, the investment vehicle of Germany's billionaire Reimann family, has snapped up several U.S.-based breakfast and coffee companies in recent years, including Krispy Kreme Doughnuts and K-cup coffee pod-maker and Keurig Green Mountain.

"In my view, Panera Bread becomes the crown jewel for this group," Bob Derrington, senior research analyst at Telsey Advisory Group, told "Squawk Box." He later added: "This, for JAB, makes a lot of sense."

JAB became the world's largest pure-play coffee maker by volume in 2015, when its created Jacobs Douwe Egberts in Europe, a joint venture that combined its D.E. Master Blenders 1753 business with the coffee business of U.S.- based Mondelez International.