Walgreens reports a $5.8 billion charge due to clinic operator VillageMD

Wal­greens is cut­ting down on a part of its busi­ness it once saw as a key part of its fu­ture.

The health gi­ant re­port­ed a net loss of $5.9 bil­lion dur­ing quar­ter­ly earn­ings Thurs­day, with $5.8 bil­lion of it be­ing an im­pair­ment charge on its in­vest­ment in its pri­ma­ry care chain Vil­lageMD.

It al­so plans to close 160 clin­ics to­tal, ex­ec­u­tives said on the earn­ings call, a leap from the 60 un­der­per­form­ing clin­ics the com­pa­ny planned to shut­ter last fall as part of its cost-cut­ting goal of $1 bil­lion. The re­tail­er has since closed all stores in states such as Illi­nois and Flori­da.

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