NEW YORK — The Carlyle Group and two other investment firms agreed to buy Pernod Ricard SA's restaurant business, including Dunkin' Donuts, for $2.4 billion and will expand to take on Starbucks Corp.

Washington, D.C.-based Carlyle will acquire Dunkin' Brands Inc. with Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP, the companies said today in a statement. Pernod had expected to get about $2 billion for the Canton, Mass.-based unit, which also runs the Baskin-Robbins and Togo's chains and had $5.5 billion in sales in the year ended Aug. 31.

"This business is a cash machine," said Laetitia Delaye, analyst at Kepler Equities in Paris, who has a "buy" rating on Pernod. "There's a good growth level and very high margins."

Carlyle Group also owns Hawaiian Telcom, formerly known as Verizon Hawaii.

The buyout firms plan to continue expanding Dunkin' Donuts beyond its stronghold in the northeast U.S. Dunkin' Brands' sales rose 13 percent from 2004 as it added stores and new products such as lattes to compete against Starbucks.

Pernod, the world's second-largest liquor company, got Dunkin' Brands in its 7.6 billion-pound ($13.4 billion) purchase of Allied Domecq. It wanted to sell the company to pay down debt and focus on the spirits business, whose brands include Chivas Regal, Wild Turkey, Jameson and Kahlua.

The company's shares gained 1 euro, or 0.7 percent, to 145.5 euros in Paris. They've gained 29 percent this year.

"There are a number of geographic markets in the U.S. that don't have the Dunkin' franchise," said Tom Burnett, president of Merger Insight, a research unit of New York-based brokerage Wall Street Access. "There are various pockets and geographic regions that could be used for expansion and exploitation."

Bain is a co-owner of hamburger chain Burger King Corp. It also has a 31 percent stake in Domino's Pizza Inc. of Ann Arbor, Mich., which operates 7,500 outlets worldwide. Shares of the pizza chain have jumped 76 percent since its initial public offering in July 2004, compared with the 13 percent gain by the Standard & Poor's 500 Index.

One of Boston-based Thomas H. Lee's most successful deals was the $135 million purchase of Snapple, a producer of iced teas and fruit drinks, in 1992. Snapple was sold two years later for $1.7 billion. It previously invested in Cinnabon International Inc., which sells cinnamon buns.

Carlyle Group has made more than $14.9 billion in investments since 1987, according to its Web site. The firm acquired Dr Pepper/Seven Up Bottling Group with Cadbury Schweppes Plc in 1998.

The takeover price equals 11.5 to 12 times Dunkin' Brands' earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, a measure of cash flow known as Ebitda, DiNovi said. Starbucks, the largest U.S. coffee chain, trades at about 19 times Ebitda, while McDonald's, the world's largest restaurant chain, trades at 9.7, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.