The Walgreens World Domination Begins by Buying Boots

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Yesterday afternoon, Walgreens announced they bought 45 percent of British drug chain, Alliance Boots for $6.7 Billion. FYI: The wacky name comes from Boots, an English company since the mid-1800's merger with Swiss company, Alliance UniChem in 1996 to make Alliance Boots.

This creates the world's largest prescription drug buyer. Alliance Boots' stock has increased over the past few years while Walgreens' sales have fallen over the past several months since their breakup with Express Scripts. Some analysts think this is an opportunity for Walgreens to expand its private label beauty offerings for its LOOK Boutiques.
· Walgreen Calls Boots Deal a 'Game-Changing Step' [Crain's]
· All Walgreens Coverage [Racked]