A European company you've never heard of has quietly acquired Panera, Au Bon Pain, and Krispy Kreme in its quest to build a coffee empire (PNRA)

• Panera is acquiring sandwich rival Au Bon Pain. 
• JAB Holdings already owns Panera, Caribou Coffee, Krispy Kreme, and Keurig.
• The European firm apparently wants to be the "largest coffee company in the world." 

The company that owns Krispy Kreme, Caribou Coffee, and Panera Bread just signed an agreement to buy Au Bon Pain. 

On Wednesday, Panera Bread announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Au Bon Pain Holding Co. Inc. For JAB Holdings, Panera's parent company, that means yet another restaurant chain in its extensive portfolio. 

"This is part of a much bigger story," Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz said of the deal at the New York Time's DealBook conference Thursday. "JAB wants to become the largest coffee company in the world." 

JAB, theinvestment arm of the secretive Reimann family, has been busily scooping up companies in the consumer and food sectors in the past few years. It spent roughly $7.5 billion to acquire Panera in July. The firm also paid about $1.35 billion to buy Krispy Kreme Doughnuts in 2016. 

Here's the story of the firm that wants to become the "largest coffee company in the world."

JAB acquired Peet's Coffee and Tea in 2012.

JAB Holdings acquired Peet's back in 2012 for about $1 billion.

It then did a deal for Caribou Coffee.

JAB also runs Caribou Coffee Co., which it acquired in 2013 for $340 million. Caribou Coffee is based in Minnesota.

Next up was D.E Master Blenders 1753

JAB struck a deal in 2013 to buy D.E. Master Blenders 1753, which had been spun out of Sara Lee Corp. a year earlier, for $9.8 billion.