Walgreens Closes drugstore.com Deal
Walgreen Co. has completed its acquisition of drugstore.com. The transaction includes all Web sites directly owned and operated by drugstore.com, as well as its corporate office and customer service and distribution center operations.
The transaction, which represents a total enterprise value of approximately $409 million, follows Walgreens acquisition last year of New York-based drugstore chain Duane Reade. The addition of drugstore.com's strong online business across its health, personal care, beauty and vision categories better positions Walgreens as the most convenient multi-channel retailer of health and daily living needs in America.
“We welcome drugstore.com’s leaders and employees to the Walgreens family,” said Walgreens President and CEO Greg Wasson. "drugstore.com complements Walgreens center of gravity — our 7,700 drugstores ? by extending many of our own multi-channel initiatives that have been driving our growth. This acquisition also provides us a unique opportunity to access more than three million savvy, online loyal customers, and move even closer to our existing customers through relationships with new vendors and partners, adding approximately 60,000 products to our already strong online offering."
Walgreens President of E-commerce Sona Chawla will lead the combined e-commerce business. Dawn Lepore, former drugstore.com CEO and chairman, will continue through a transition period as a strategic advisor to Chawla.
"Today we are better positioned than ever before to offer our customers what they want, when they want it and where they want it? in our stores, online or through their mobile devices," said Chawla. "We want to provide our customers an exceptional experience, and together with drugstore.com, we will give them more ways to connect and buy, easy access to a wide selection of products and services and increased delivery options. We are committed to joining drugstore.com’s talented team with our strong and growing e-commerce organization."
drugstore.com will maintain separate branding of its Web sites. Over the long term, Walgreens will fully integrate the two businesses and intends to enhance its multi-channel product assortment and the overall customer experience by leveraging drugstore.com’s current Web sites.