Walgreen and AmerisourceBergen Sign $400 Billion 10 Year Deal

NEW YORK, March 20, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

Walgreen Co. and its European partner Alliance Boots announced a 10 year deal with U.S. distributor AmerisourceBergen on Tuesday. The deal includes taking a minority stake in the pharmaceutical wholesaler and will pool purchasing power to buy generic and branded prescription drugs around the world. The contract is said to be worth $400 billion over a decade, and will bring an end in August to Walgreen's relationship with rival distributor Cardinal Health. Walgreen shares closed up 5.44% on Tuesday.

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Harvest Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE: HNR) - Harvest Natural Resources was one of the biggest decliners on the NYSE yesterday. Shares were already down 85% at the stock's opening price of $2.95. They dropped as low as $2.91, which became a new 52-week low for the stock. The huge plunge came after the Company revealed that they found accounting errors that may require it to reinstate financial statements dating back to 2010. Shares saw a 27% bounce back from their intra-day low and closed at $3.70. Earlier this year shares of HNR were trading over $10.00. Trading volume yesterday was higher than average with over nine million shares traded.

Star Scientific, Inc. (Nasdaq: STSI) - Star Scientific experienced a big drop on Tuesday after the Company announced that they are being investigated by the federal government. Shares traded as low as $1.58 in intra-day trading, just two cents above the stock's 52-week low. The company said it believes the main focus of the investigation is its securities, including private placements and related transactions dating to 2006. The stock closed at $1.64, down 17.17%. The stock has a 52-week trading range of 1.56 - 5.05.

eBay Inc. (Nasdaq: EBAY) - eBay was one of the most active stocks trading on the Nasdaq composite on Tuesday.  In a competitive strategy against Amazon, the Company announced that it will overhaul fees for sellers on its online marketplace, lowering them for many sellers. eBay is simplifying their "final value fees" with the percentage fee levied on each sale determined by product categories. JMP Securities analyst Ronald Josey on Tuesday rated eBay as an "outperformer" on Tuesday and made it his "top pick." Shares of eBay closed up 1.97% yesterday at $51.10.

Walgreen Co. (NYSE: WAG) - Walgreen Co. had one of the biggest trading volume advances on the NYSE yesterday, trading nearly twenty four million shares. The stock climbed as high as $45.80 in intra-day trading, making it a new 52-week high for the Company. Walgreen announced revenues revealing that for the quarter ended Feb. 28 (Q2), the Company missed slightly on revenues but beat expectations on earnings per share. Walgreen also announced that they are expanding their supply agreement with AmerisourceBergen Corp. through a 10-year deal that gives it and European health and beauty retailer Alliance Boots a minority stake in the pharmaceutical wholesaler. The contract is said to be worth $400 billion over a decade. Shares of WAG closed up 5.44% at $44.74.

AmerisourceBergen Corporation (NYSE: ABC) - Trading volume for ABC on Tuesday was roughly eight times higher than average at a little over 17 million shares traded. Yesterday Walgreen Co. announced a 10-year agreement with distributor AmerisourceBergen that cements Walgreen status as the world's largest buyer of drugs.  The 10-year agreement with AmerisourceBergen is said to be a contract worth $400 billion over a decade. Shares of ABC hit a new 52-week high yesterday at $52.15 in intra-day trading. The stock closed at $50.06 up 3.64%.

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