NEW YORK — Walgreens is buying buy 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 such as 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.
The companies said the deal is worth $17.2 billion, when debt is included.
Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. has more than 13,100 stores around the world. Rite Aid has more than 4,600 stores in the U.S.