After nearly 100 years as a publicly traded company, Walgreens is going private as part and parcel of a $10 billion buyout deal with private-equity firm Sycamore Partners. The company is on-task to sell Village Medical, Summit Health and CityMD clinic brands, all of which are operated under the VillageMD line of business. Many saw this massive leveraged buyout coming, although the on-again, off-again speculation hinted at prolonged negotiations. For the moment, there is no obvious buyer for the clinics, although some other private equity firm might ultimately end up with the asset. VillageMD CEO and co-founder Tim Barry stepped down in December 2024 amid the brands’ continued failure to turn a profit.
What’s left? Walgreens invested more than $6 billion in VillageMD, and in 2020 announced plans to open 500 to 700 primary care clinics in its retail pharmacy stores over the following 5 years. It never achieved scale, however. “By 2024, Walgreens took a $5.8 billion write-down on its investment in VillageMD due to lower-than-expected financial performance and clinic closures,” says Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc, President of Urgent Care Consultants and Senior Editor of JUCM. “Today, the company still owns 181 CityMD Urgent Care centers, according to recent National Urgent Care Realty Data.”