Actor's bid for coffee chain beats offer from Starbucks
BY Wire reports
Saturday, January 05, 2013
1/05/13 at 5:08 AM
"Grey's Anatomy" star Patrick Dempsey has won a bankruptcy auction to buy Tully's Coffee, a small chain based in Seattle.
Among those the actor beat out is Tully's much bigger Seattle-based neighbor, Starbucks Corp., which wanted to convert the cafes to its own brand.
Seattle has a special place in Dempsey's career - "Grey's Anatomy" takes place in a fictional hospital in the city.
"I'm thrilled that we won and I'm even more excited about saving Tully's Coffee and its hundreds of jobs," Dempsey said Friday in a news release issued by his company, Global Baristas LLC.
He plans to keep the Tully's name.
But Starbucks says not so fast. The chain, which has 18,000 cafes worldwide, said a final ruling on the winning bid won't be made until a court hearing Jan. 11. Starbucks said it's in a "back-up" position" to buy 25 of the 47 Tully's cafes, with another undisclosed bidder making an offer for the remainder.
The combined bids of Starbucks and the undisclosed bidder come to $10.6 million, above the $9.2 million Global Baristas is offering.
Tully's, with more than 500 employees and locations in Washington and California, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October.
Associated Images:
Actor Patrick Dempsey: "I'm thrilled that we won and I'm even more excited about saving Tully's Coffee and its hundreds of jobs."
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