[GreatBearMagnus]

It's a long press-release, but I'll post the parts I thought were most interesting:

Rite Aid Agrees to Buy Jean Coutu's Eckerd and Brooks Stores for $2.55 Billion

NEW YORK (AP) -- Rite Aid Corp., the nation's third largest drugstore chain, said Thursday it will purchase the U.S. Eckerd and Brooks operations of Canada's Jean Coutu Group Inc. for about $2.55 billion in cash and stock.

The deal will make Rite Aid the largest drugstore chain operator on the East Coast, Rite Aid said. But it will still trail Walgreen and CVS nationally.

"Adding these stores to our company gives Rite Aid scale comparable to our major drugstore competitors, and we believe this enables us to compete more effectively in a highly competitive business," Rite Aid President and CEO Mary Sammons said in a statement.

Rite Aid will pay $1.45 billion in cash and 250 million shares valued at about $1.1 billion for Jean Coutu's Brooks and Eckerd chains in the United States. The shares will give Jean Coutu a 32 percent equity stake and 30.2 percent voting power in the expanded Rite Aid. In addition, Rite Aid will assume $850 million of long-term debt as part of the deal.

Jean Coutu announced in April 2004 that it would pay $2.38 billion for 1,539 Eckerd stores being sold by the retailer J.C. Penney Co.

The planned acquisition includes 1,858 drugstores -- including 337 Brooks stores and 1,521 Eckerd stores -- and six distribution centers, all located primarily on the East Coast and in the Mid-Atlantic states. The stores being acquired are located in 18 states. Rite Aid currently operates in 14 of the states and the deal will also give it outlets in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, South Carolina and North Carolina.

Upon closing, there will be about 5,000 Rite Aid stores in 31 states and the District of Columbia, with coverage on both the East and West coasts.

CVS Corp., based in Woonsocket, R.I., is currently the nation's leader in terms of drug stores with more than 6,100 while Deerfield, Ill.-based Walgreen Co., with nearly 5,300 stores, is the leader by annual revenue at $42.2 billion.

The combined fiscal 2006 revenue of Rite Aid and Jean Coutu's U.S. operations were approximately $26.8 billion.

Rite Aid plans to rebrand the acquired stores under the Rite Aid name.

[Trish]

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/busi...824eckerd.html

[GreatBearMagnus]

Already posted here:
http://www.afullcup.com/upload/showthread.php?t=22502

[Trish]

Thanks GMB! Sorry should have followed my own do a search first advice!

[JRA191]

I thought cvs bought some or all eckerds awhile back?

I havn't looked at an eckerds flier in a couple months.They can't even come close to cvs or walgreens around here.

[LyndaSLP]

Originally Posted by JRA191

I havn't looked at an eckerds flier in a couple months.They can't even come close to cvs or walgreens around here.

Ditto -- and after shopping at some RiteAids in Vegas and checking their deals, I'd like to have 1 or 2 in my town. Altho, GBM has warned they are evil when it comes to customer service.

[ladywine]

they're also notoriously bad about having the FAR stuff in stock.

I did get good CS when I called about one of my rct.s not crediting from the sun care rebates, but they'd been having problems with that one for weeks by that time, so it may just have been that they were used to dealing with it.