Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc.

Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. is an American multinational retail pharmacy company, historically headquartered in the Chicago area, operating one of the largest retail pharmacy chains in the United States. It was formed in 2014 through the merger of Walgreens, a drugstore chain founded by Charles Walgreen in Chicago in 1901, and Alliance Boots, a UK-based pharmacy-led health and beauty group whose own Boots chain traces to a nineteenth-century English herbalist business. The combined company operated thousands of pharmacy and retail locations across the United States, the United Kingdom and other countries, alongside pharmaceutical wholesale distribution through its AmerisourceBergen-linked and other supply chain interests. In 2025 the company agreed to be acquired by the private equity firm Sycamore Partners, moving Walgreens Boots Alliance from public stock markets toward private ownership.