CVS Caremark drug store chain officials said Aug. 12 they would buy Longs Drug Stores Corp. in a deal valued at $2.7 billion.
 

Longs operates about 30 stories in the Tri-Counties

The $71.50 per-share cash offer was a 32 percent premium over Walnut Creek-based Longs’ closing price of $54.04. Longs’ shares soared 30 percent, or $16.21, to $70.25 in after-hours trading.

Including the assumption of the chain’s roughly $200 million in debt, the deal is valued at about $2.9 billion. Rhode Island-based CVS said the acquisition will give the nation’s largest provider of prescriptions significant inroads in West Coast markets where property is often unavailable or expensive to acquire.