CVS completes Longs purchase

CVS Caremark Corp. recently announced that it successfully completed the subsequent offering period of its tender offer for all of the outstanding common stock of Longs Drug Stores Corp.

The subsequent period for the tender offer expired .on Oct. 28, 2008. Approximately 28,317,338 shares of Longs were tendered in the offer’s initial and subsequent offering periods, representing approximately 78.07 percent of the outstanding shares.

All tendered shares have been accepted for payment by CVS Caremark. CVS offered to buy Longs for $71.50 per share in August. The Walnut Creek, Calif.-based Longs supported the deal even after Walgreens Co. made a larger bid of $75 per share. The takeover will give CVS 521 additional existing stores, primarily in California but also in Hawaii, Arizona, and Nevada Following the merger, Longs will be an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of CVS Caremark.

In the merger, each of the remaining outstanding shares, other than any shares owned by CVS Caremark or its subsidiaries, will be converted into the right to receive the same $71.50 in cash per share, without interest, that was paid in the tender offer.

Following the merger, Longs’ common stock will no longer be traded on the New York Stock Exchange.