Starbucks Corp. (SBUX, quote) announced yesterday it has come to an agreement to purchase tea retailer Teavana Holdings Inc. (TEA, quote) a loose-leaf tea store for approximately $620 million.  An all cash deal.

The move prices TEA at $15.50 per share or a 53% premium from Tuesday’s close.

Starbucks Chief Executive Howard Schultz said, "We believe the tea category is ripe for reinvention and rapid growth. The Teavana acquisition now positions us to disrupt and lead, just as we did with espresso starting three decades ago"

This latest move is the latest in a string moves from the 2008 announcement for the search of additional sustainable revenue sources in order to reduce the companies dependency on strictly coffee.  Since then company has move into the juice, energy drink and instant coffee sectors.  This past September Starbucks released its own single server coffee and tea brewer called Verismo.  For info on the move into the single server sector click here.

The moves are really no surprise after the company earlier in the year took the word “Coffee” off their logo to de-emphasis the company as a coffee only retail shop.

The move should allow Starbucks to expand their international operating revenue with the second largest consumes beverage (Tea) and expand further into Asian emerging markets and elsewhere. Currently Starbucks' international revenue is 21% of overall operation revenue.

Starbucks' Bottom Line:  Starbucks is the process of becoming a dominated coffee retailer to dominated global beverage retailer and should do well in the coming years.