The Wall Street Journal

Walgreens Goes From $100 Billion Health Giant to Private-Equity Salvage Project

Sycamore’s deal to take Walgreens private follows chain’s decline amid e-commerce and health-industry changes

Walgreens made a practice of clustering its stores near each other. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Not much has gone right for Walgreens Boots Alliance in the past decade. 

Customers bought more and more household items online at sites such as Amazon.com, instead of Walgreens’s more than 8,000 stores across the U.S. The pharmacy chain inked deals with other drug suppliers and doctors offices, but stood pat while rivals, including CVS and Express Scripts, merged with big health insurers, gaining control of the medical-reimbursement purse strings that were squeezing pharmacies.

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