NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Coca-Cola (KO) announced a 10-year agreement with Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR) to develop products with the latter's Keurig cold beverage system.
TheStreet's Debra Borchardt suggested that the cold beverage system could be available to consumers in 2015. Coca-Cola paid $1.25 billion for a 10% stake in Green Mountain.
Shares of Coca-Cola are slightly higher on the news, up roughly 2%, while shares of Green Mountain are soaring 30%, although that's well off its after-hour highs.
While the pod system that Kuerig currently uses would not be able to carbonate the cold beverage, it is much easier to use than rival at-home soda maker SodaStream's (SODA), product, she said.
Speaking of SodaStream, shares initially fell 7% on the news. However, investors have turned optimistic that the company could strike a similar deal with a different large company. Shares are now up 7% in response.
Credit Suisse views the deal as a positive for Coca-Cola, since it fits the company's strategy of making minority investments in smaller companies, in order to leverage its distribution infrastructure, Borchardt concluded.
-- Written by Bret Kenwell in Petoskey, Mich.
