Retail
Walgreen Offers to Buy Longs Drug Stores
TSC Staff
09/13/08 - 10:39 AM EDT
Walgreen(WAG Quote) Friday made an approximately $3 billion offer for rival Longs Drug Stores(LDG Quote).
The all-cash offer of $75 a share is higher than the $71.50 offer from CVS Caremark(CVS Quote) that Longs has already accepted.
Walgreen's offer price of about $3 billion includes the $2.7 billion purchase of all of Longs' outstanding shares, along with the assumption of its debt. If necessary, Walgreen says its will pay a $115 million termination fee set forth in the merger agreement between Longs and CVS Caremark.
The CVS Caremark offer, which is also all cash, has run into resistance from some Longs investors, including its largest shareholder, Advisory Research, which has said the price is too low.
Shares of Longs closed Friday down 7 cents at $71.66. Walgreen shares finished the session down 60 cents at $36.07. CVS Caremark stock lost 2 cents to close at $37.64.