Walgreens to buy Rite Aid for $9.41 billion creating drugstore giant

[dixiegrrrrl]

$9.41 billion in cash

Think about that for a minute. All these enormous cash buyouts that are going on....money saved by paying ultra low wages with no benefits,
and cheap crap from overseas.

NEW YORK (AP) — Walgreens is buying rival Rite Aid for about $9.41 billion in cash, creating a drugstore giant with nearly 18,000 stores around the world.

The deal combines the largest and third-largest U.S. drugstore chains, based on store counts. And it makes one of the world's largest pharmaceutical buyers even bigger at a time when other key health care players like insurers and drugmakers also are expanding through multi-billion dollar deals.

Walgreens said it will pay $9 for each share of Rite Aid Corp. That's a 48 percent premium to Rite Aid's closing price of $6.08 Monday. Shares of both companies jumped Tuesday after The Wall Street Journal first reported the deal.

The companies said the deal is worth $17.2 billion, when debt is included.

http://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2015/10/27/walgreens-confirms-it-will-buy-rite-aid-for-941-billion

[mhatrw]

1. Now they can set the prices as high as they want and the wages and benefits as low.

In the city I live, Rite Aid is Walgreens' only competition, and the prices are lower at Rite Aid.

[randys1]

2. EXACTLY how capitalism at it's finest works. A $1.00 snickers bar will be $25 if the location they

are selling it will sustain that price.

Capitalism is pretty simple, does not matter, AT ALL what a product costs to make, you WILL charge the VERY MOST you can and there is an amount that will result in the most profits.

Some cant afford it, they die?

FUCK THEM this is CAPITALISM

[hlthe2b]

3. I urge folks to be careful with online pharmacy registration--they access one hell of a lot of data

More specifically, (although I'd been registered for their exercise/wellness component for some time, which was pretty routine info required), they are now trying hard to get everyone validated for the pharmacy side--even to set fitness goals. When I attempted to do so--creating a separate login and password and providing the usual name, current address, etc.-- I was shocked to get an email from them (or actually a 3rd party investigative contractor) that required me to verify I was who I say I am They provided bits of addresses (several close to accurate) dating back MORE THAN 30 YEARS!!!! Some of them actuall applied to my parents who have been deceased for many many years!

I was so furious I contacted them and informed them how intrusive this was and that I would be forwarding my concerns on to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (who do a lot of work monitoring privacy and such intrusive use of data). I received a polite reply back from some Walgreens rep, which essentially acknowledged the issue but put all the blame on a contractor... Supposedly they are trying to come up with an alternative. Yeah, right.

So beware. They are able to create what used to be a high level, dossier-type volume of information on each and every one of us and that, to me is very disconcerting given how big they are getting (not to mention all the recent retail data hacks).

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. In the lil town I live in

Wal-Greens moved in about 2-3 years ago, right across the street from the Rite-Aid.
And it then bought out the only local pharmacy.
It bought all the customer names and records, too, which is how I found out about the change..I got a letter from Wal-green's saying my prescription refill was ready to pick up...at 3 times the price I had been paying at the old pharmacy.

we have a older pharmacy in town, which is part of a small chain, owned/managed locally, and we have Wal-Mart, those are the lowest prices places, then Rite-aid ( now R.I.P.) and Wal-mart...that is it.
So have now lost 2 of 5 pharmacy options, and it is 45 miles to nearest other places, and they are small towns too.

[DavidDvorkin]

5. That's roughly four blimps.

[KamaAina]

6. Lovely. Any Rite Aid that sells booze will be cut back to beer and wine.

If not made dry altogether.

[romanic]

7. So what happened to the monopoly laws

to prevent such mergers from happening?

[mhatrw]

8. The United States of Mergers & Acquisitions

happened.

America's business is valuation.