The announcement in early January that GTECH Holdings Corp. was being purchased by the company that runs Italy’s national lottery heralded a year of high-profile mergers and acquisitions for Rhode Island-based companies.
Lottomatica S.p.A.’s purchase of GTECH for about $4.8 billion came months after the world’s biggest seller of computerized lottery systems announced plans to relocate its corporate headquarters from East Greenwich to a new building in downtown Providence.
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The development project was not derailed by GTECH’s acquisition.
In August, Rite Aid Corp., the nation’s third-largest drugstore chain, announced a $3.4 billion deal to buy Warwick-based Brooks-Eckerd Pharmacy from its Canadian parent, the Jean Coutu Group.
Three months later, as part of a continuing consolidation within the nation’s drugstore sector, Woonsocket-based CVS Corp. announced its own blockbuster deal. CVS, the nation’s largest retail pharmacy chain, announced in November it would merge with Caremark Rx Inc., a Nashville-based pharmacy benefits manager, acquiring it for $21.2 billion. A competing offer has since been made, so it’s unclear what will happen to the deal.
In October, American Power Conversion Corp. in North Kingstown and Schneider Electric in France announced Schneider’s purchase of APC in a deal valued at $6.1 billion. The merger is expected to create an industry-leading power supply, IT and data systems business.
— David Ortiz
