Starbucks Corp has signed a partnership deal with Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc , confirming expectations the pair would team up to take on the fast-growing single-serve market.

The companies will sell Starbucks coffee and Tazo teas pods for Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc's popular Keurig machines starting this autumn. The announcement follows a Reuters report last month that the two rivals would join forces in the booming $4 billion U.S. single-cup coffee segment.

Early in 2012, Starbucks cafes will begin selling Green Mountain's Keurig brewers as well as Starbucks coffee and tea pods. Before that, the pods, known as K-cups, will be sold by supermarkets and other retailers in the United States and Canada.

Starbucks will be the exclusive licensed super-premium brand for the Keurig brewer for the length of the deal. The companies did not disclose terms.

Starbucks, the world's largest coffee company, has been looking to expand beyond its namesake cafes and wants to be a big player in the new and fast-growing single-serve coffee segment. Green Mountain dominates the U.S. single-cup market with its Keurig brewer.

Starbucks on March 1 terminated an agreement by which it provided coffee discs for Kraft Foods Inc's Tassimo one-cup home brewer. At the same time it ended its grocery distribution agreement with Kraft.

Shares in Green Mountain closed 6.6 percent higher at $43.64 on Wednesday while stock in Starbucks rose 1.6 percent to finish at $34.54.

(Reporting by Lisa Baertlein)

Canada Coffee