Walgreens announced Tuesday it plans to buy rival Rite Aid for $9.41 billion in cash.
The deal is worth $17.2 billion including acquired debt. Walgreens and Rite Aid are the second- and third-largest drugstore chains by sales in the United States, with a combined total of almost 13,000 stores, CNN Money reports. Walgreens said in a statement that "initially" Rite Aid stores will keep their names, but the company plans to create "a fully harmonized portfolio of stores." The deal still has to be approved by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, to ensure the merger complies with antitrust laws.
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