Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc, which just bought a 334,000-square-foot building last month in east Knox County, agreed to buy Tully's Coffee Corporation for $40,300,000 million in cash on Monday.

If this is approved by Tully's shareholders, the deal will close by the end of the year. Tully's founder and chairman of the board Tom O'Keefe, who owns 10.4 percent of Tully's outstanding voting shares and 20.1 percent of its common stock, says he will vote for the acquisition, according to Green Mountain.

We believe this is an excellent opportunity for our shareholders to receive great value for the Tully's wholesale business and brand assets. Tom O'Keefe, Tully's founder and chairman of the board

With a huge "T" standing on top of the seattle-based headquaters, Tully's Coffee Corporation is a coffee roaster, retailer and wholesaler in wetern states.

Tully's sells its premium coffees in more than 500 branded retail locations and over 5,000 supermarkets domestically. It also has a Joint company Tully's Coffee in Japan.

Tully's wholesale sales over the past 12 months ended June 30, 2008 has been up approximately 35% to $30.4 million. President and CEO of Green Mountain Lawrence Blanford said it is driven by the growing supermarket distribution, and expressed his confidence in the benefits of adding Tully's into Green Mountain.

Tully's will provide GMCR with a complementary West Coast brand and business infrastructure, furthering our plans to establish the company, and its proprietary Keurig Single-cup Brewing system, throughout North America.Lawrence Blanford, president and CEO of Green MountainStarted in a small cafe in rural Vermontin 1981 , Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. went public in 1993 and is listed under GMCR on the NASDAQ stock exchange. It roasts, packages and distributes coffee Roasters, organics, and seasoning teas. The consumers buy from the company through its catalogue and web site.  In 2006, Green Mountain bought a company called Keurig that sells single-cup coffee brewers and accessories.

Green Mountain owns a 334,000-square-foot building in Forks of the River Industrial Park, east Knox County which they bought for $10.4 billion last month. The building will be used for packaging and distributing coffee and will be further used to roast coffee.

If the deal between Green Mountain and Tully's becomes final, 70 employees from Tully's wholesale and supply chain business will join Green Mountain Coffee segment. All other employees at Tullyl's Seattle headquarteres will continue to run the domestic and international partnerships, according to a Green Mountain statement, no layoff is expected.

Tully's has lost a total of more than $88 million over the past years. O'Keefe commented on the deal saying that the sale will allow Tully's "to immediately strengthen balance sheet by reducing outstanding debt."