From the Chicago Tribune:
Walgreen has exercised its option to buy the remaining 55 percent of European pharmacy retailer and wholesaler Alliance Boots in a $15.26 billion deal that will keep its corporate tax headquarters in the United States.
The company that will emerge from the cash-and-stock transaction, Walgreens Boots Alliance, will be based in the Chicago area and include a mix of executives from both companies, Walgreen said Wednesday morning. The deal is expected to close by the end of March.
Walgreen President and Chief Executive Officer Greg Wasson, who will remain in that role in the new holding company, told the Tribune that a so-called corporate inversion, which would have moved its headquarters overseas in part to take advantage of a lower corporate tax rate, wasn’t in the best long-term interest of shareholders.
Guess that they decided that there would be more financial damage from all of the bad PR than there would be benefit from tax avoidance.