Walgreens and Boots Join Brands to Create Global Pharmacy Giant

Walgreen Co, the largest drugstore company in the U.S., has gone transcontinental with its acquisition of a 45-percent stake in Boots, the U.K.-based drug-store giant, for $6.7 billion.

The two companies also are looking to a full merger in three years for further $9.5 billion, plus the assumption of Boots' then-outstanding debt. Combined they'll have 11,000 stores in 12 countries, prompting Walgreen's press release headline, "Walgreens and Alliance Boots Form Strategic Partnership to Create the First Global Pharmacy-Led, Health and Wellbeing Enterprise."

The deal represents another in a growing string of incursions by relatively healthy American companies into an ailing European economic scene, to the tune of about $43 billion overall so far this year. Alliance Boots Executive Chairman Stefano Pessina, meanwhile, has finally struck the big deal he was seeking in order to "transform" the business and future of becoming a global healthcare leader.Continue reading...