Description
Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. is an American holding company headquartered in Deerfield, Illinois, that owns Walgreens, Boots, and a number of pharmaceutical manufacturing, wholesale, and distribution companies. The company was formed on December 31, 2014, after Walgreens purchased the 55% stake in UK and Switzerland-based Alliance Boots that it did not already own. The total price of the acquisition was $4.9 billion in cash and 144.3 million common shares with fair value of $10.7 billion. Walgreens had previously purchased 45% of the company for $4.0 billion and 83.4 million common shares in August 2012 with an option to purchase the remaining shares within three years. Walgreens became a subsidiary of the newly created company after the transactions were completed. As of 2020, Walgreens Boots Alliance is ranked #19 on the Fortune 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.
The company is organized into three divisions: Retail Pharmacy USA (Walgreens and Duane Reade), Retail Pharmacy International (Boots and other retail operations internationally), and Pharmaceutical Wholesale, incorporating Alliance Healthcare. The new holding company began trading on the NASDAQ on December 31, 2014.
The combined business has operations in over 25 countries. Walgreens had formerly operated solely within the United States and its territories, while Alliance Boots operated a more international business.
In October 2020, Walgreens Boots Alliance published its fourth quarter earnings report. Fiscal year 2020 sales were $139.5 billion, up 2.5% from fiscal 2019, and net earnings decreased to $456 million.
On June 26, 2018, Walgreens Boots Alliance replaced General Electric on the Dow Jones Industrial Index.
