It’s on again, after a hiatus due to market turmoil caused by geopolitical events.
NB: Technically the “Alliance” part of the WBA name is a legacy of Boots taking over a UK pharmacy wholesaler called Alliance some time prior to the Walgreen takeover; Walgreens bought Boots Alliance (as the company was named at the time). The news reportage seems to have forgotten that point, and the continuing wholesale side of the business.
(Boots isn’t a PBM though, like some chains in the US; in the UK the BHS is effectively the main PBM with non-NHS private prescriptions being paid “out of pocket” typically and costs claimed by the insured from the insurer where relevant)
Boots is No 1 in the UK (c.f. CVS in the US), Lloyds Pharmacy is No. 2 and some way behind (and Lloyds is more focussed on healthcare items in their stores, Boots has a bit more general merch in their larger stores although not as much as a typical US pharma store might have).
And if this is giving you a headache, you have to thank Boots for discovering and licensing Ibuprofen, which you can take to resolve your aches.