Walgreens Concludes Public Trading Era with Landmark Acquisition

The chapter on Walgreens Boots Alliance as a publicly traded entity has officially closed. In August 2025, the company was acquired by private equity firm Sycamore Partners in a deal valued at approximately $10 billion. This transaction precipitated the removal of Walgreens stock from the Nasdaq exchange, and it subsequently exited major indices, including the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Final Financial Report Highlights Deep-Seated Challenges

The imperative for this strategic shift was underscored by the company’s final financial disclosures as a public entity. For the third quarter of 2025, Walgreens reported revenue of $39.0 billion, marking a 7.2 percent increase. However, this top-line growth masked significant underlying issues, as earnings per share plummeted from a profit of $0.40 to a loss of $0.20.

Persistent weaknesses in retail sales and escalating operational expenses proved too substantial to be offset by existing cost-saving initiatives. These figures highlighted the structural difficulties that made the radical corporate overhaul a necessity for the new owners.

Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying Walgreens?

A Strategic Overhaul Under Private Ownership

With the transition to private ownership, Sycamore Partners has initiated a comprehensive restructuring plan designed to restore core profitability. The cornerstone of this strategy involves dismantling the pharmaceutical giant into five distinct, standalone business units.

Concurrently, a rigorous cost-reduction program is underway, targeting the closure of 1,200 store locations over the coming three-year period. The broader restructuring focuses on several key operational improvements:

• Streamlining the remaining retail pharmacy network
• Implementing stringent control over general operating expenditures
• Enhancing cash flow generation capabilities
• Revising executive and employee compensation structures

This aggressive repositioning marks a definitive new beginning for the company, albeit one that public market investors will no longer participate in directly.