JERUSALEM (JTA) — Starbucks is in advanced talks to buy 10 percent of the Israeli home soda machine company SodaStream.
Shares of SodaStream jumped more than 10 percent following the report Wednesday in the Israeli business daily Globes, which said an announcement of the purchase is expected “soon.” The company value is $1.1 billion.
Neither company would comment in the media on the report.
Starbucks left the Israeli market about a decade ago after Israeli customers indicated their preference for purchasing their coffee from other companies.
SodaStream had been in the news in recent months following the signing of actress Scarlett Johansson as a spokeswoman and the ensuing controversy over its factory in the West Bank. Johansson resigned as a global ambassador for Oxfam over her position with the company, which employs Jewish and Palestinian workers at its West Bank facility.
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