CALIFORNIA:Restaurant company Inspire Brands announced Friday it was buying Dunkin' Brands, owner of the Dunkin' donut and Baskin-Robbins ice cream chains, for $8.8 billion.

Including debt, the transaction will rise to $11.3 billion, the company said in a statement.

Inspire already owns the Arby's, Buffalo Wild Wings, Sonic Drive-In and Jimmy John's restaurant chains.

The Dunkin' chain, created in 1950 in the US northeastern state of Massachusetts, is known for its variety of donuts as well as its coffee and breakfast sandwiches.

Baskin-Robbins started in 1945 in California and is famous for its 31 flavors of ice cream.

The two brands account for more than 20,000 distribution points in more than 60 countries.

They have suffered somewhat from the pandemic and the resulting temporary or permanent closures of stores, with turnover of their parent company having fallen by six percent in total over the first nine months of the year.

A former subsidiary of the Allied Domecq group, Dunkin' Brands was bought by the French wine and spirits group Pernod Ricard in 2005 and sold a year later for $2.4 billion to three investment funds: Bain Capital, Carlyle and Thomas H. Lee.

By adding Dunkin', Inspire Brands will have a total of more than 31,600 restaurants, with combined sales of $26 billion and 600,000 employees.

Inspire Brands was founded in 2018 under the umbrella of private equity firm Roark Capital.

Under the terms of the deal, Inspire Brands will pay $106.50 per Dunkin' share in cash.

The transaction, subject to certain conditions, is expected to be finalized by the end of the year.