Walgreens Delays Deal to Buy Rite Aid

Walgreens (Deerfield, Ill.) has delayed the date by which it plans to finalize its purchase of Rite Aid (Camp Hill, Pa.). Originally, the companies had planned to finalize the agreement by Oct. 27, 2016, but have now pushed the date back to Jan. 27, 2017. The change is an effort to give Walgreens more time to divest up to 1000 stores so that it can win regulatory approval to move forward with the deal.

Some had expected Kroger (Cincinnati, Ohio) to purchase more than 600 of the stores. However, according to Forbes, Kroger is no longer pursing the purchase due to a decision from the Federal Trade Commission barring the company from moving any divested stores inside its own chain.