(KRON) -- Blue Bottle Coffee started with humble beginnings as a small Oakland business in 2002. Nearly 25 years later, it has grown into a worldwide coffee empire. Blue Bottle's current parent company, Nestlé, is nearing a deal to sell its majority stake to the parent company of the Chinese chain Luckin Coffee (Centurium Capital Management Ltd.), according to multiple reports by Bloomberg and Caixin Global. Caixin reports that the majority stake is being sold for less than $400 million. Longtime Berkeley spot known for potato puffs opening first outpost in San Francisco Nestlé reportedly sought full ownership of the Bay Area-founded company for $700 million, according to Caixin. The outlet reported that the actual sale price would be a "steep discount" of what Nestlé was asking for. Luckin Coffee was founded in China in 2017 and opened its first U.S. locations in New York City in 2025. In the U.S., Luckin only has cafes in New York City but has more than 30,000 locations worldwide. The deal doesn't come as too much of a surprise, as Reuters reported last December that Nestlé was looking to sell its stake in Blue Bottle Coffee. Nestlé had no comment when KRON4 asked about the reported deal. Blue Bottle representatives did not respond to KRON4's inquiry. Nestlé acquired Blue Bottle in 2017. According to Bloomberg, Luckin's company market value stands at around $9.5 billion. Olympic gold medalist Alysa Liu spotted at Target in East Bay In its nearly 25 years of existence, Blue Bottle has since expanded to more than 100 locations worldwide, including Japan, Korea and China. There are now 25 Blue Bottle cafes in the Bay Area, including 13 in San Francisco, three in the East Bay and eight in the South Bay. Blue Bottle also has more than a dozen locations in New York. Its fanbase has grown through the years, with more than 509,000 followers on its Instagram page and another 157,000 on Facebook. ...read more read less