°®¶¹´«Ã½

The offer, a roughly 8% premium to Walgreens’ closing price March 6 in New York, will turn one of the oldest, most recognizable U.S. drugstore chains into a private company.

Revenue came to $39 billion for the fiscal quarter ended in November, driven by higher prices for branded drugs and prescription volumes at the company’s U.S. retail pharmacy division.

Walgreens will close about 1,200 locations over the next three years as the drugstore chain seeks to turn around a struggling U.S. business that contributed to a $3 billion quarterly loss.

Walgreens signaled that more store closings are on the way, missed earnings expectations for its third quarter and cut its annual forecast.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. is exploring a sale of U.K. drugstore chain Boots so it can focus on its North American business, according to a person familiar with the matter, potentially undoing billionaire Stefano Pessina’s 2014 blockbuster transatlantic merger.

Walgreens Boots Alliance’s finance chief downplayed the impact of Amazon .com Inc. just days after the internet giant’s push into online pharmacy sent shares of pharmacies and drug distributors reeling.