Walgreens seals $10 billion take-private deal with Sycamore

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Walgreens’s almost centurylong run as a public company is coming to an end. The embattled drugstore chain has struck a deal to be taken private by Sycamore Partners in one of the biggest leveraged buyouts in recent memory.

Sycamore has agreed to pay $11.45 a share in cash for Walgreens Boots Alliance, representing an equity value of around $10 billion and 29% above where the stock was trading last year. Shareholders could also receive up to an additional $3 a share down the road, based on proceeds from selling the company’s primary-care assets. The total value of the deal, including debt and the potential future payouts, would be almost $24 billion.

The companies expect the deal to close in the fourth quarter of 2025. The sale is the culmination of a decade of struggles for a historic American retailer with thousands of pharmacies that are fixtures on neighborhood street corners. The market value of Walgreens Boots Alliance surpassed $100 billion in 2015 but had been battered in recent years.

Walgreens originally went public in 1927. The company’s new owners will now have the chance to fix the business out of the public eye. “Going private is going to let us be more focused, more nimble, more long-term in our decision-making, in the context of the challenges that we continue to face," said Chief Executive Tim Wentworth.

“That gives us both the time and the ability to focus in a way to transform Walgreens." Wentworth, who took over as Walgreens CEO in October 2023, had embarked on a turnaround effort. The company has said it plans to shed around 1,200 stores over three years. But its shares had generally continued to languish, with investors skeptical about the long-term growth