Walgreens will strengthen its multichannel presence with this purchase and gets immediate access to more than 3 millions Drugstore.com customers. It will also block other customers like Rite Aid which has had a partnership with Drugstore.com for many years now.

Walgreens to buy Drugstore.com

One of the biggest names in the online retail category for prescription drugs and health and beauty supplies is being acquired by one of nation’s largest drugstore chains.

This morning Walgreen Co., No. 68 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, announced plans to buy Drugstore.com, No. 46, in a deal valued at $429 million. Under the terms of the deal, Walgreens will pay $3.80 per share for Drugstore.com’s common stock. Walgreens expects the deal to close by the end of June.

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“Our acquisition of Drugstore.com today significantly accelerates our online strategy to leverage the best community store network in America by becoming the most convenient choice for health and daily living needs whether customers shop online or in our stores,” says Walgreens CEO Greg Wasson. “This acquisition offers a unique opportunity that will provide us immediate access to more than 3 million savvy, online loyal customers, and will allow us to move even closer to our existing customers through relationships with new vendors and partners, adding approximately 60,000 products to our already strong online offering.”

DailyDooh is reporting that Intel has just bought Toronto-based digital signage company CognoVision, acquisition price is around $17 million.

So why would Intel want CognoVision? TechCrunch writes:

The company’s digital signage offerings go beyond just providing compelling displays for marketing purposes. CognoVision’s computer vision technology provides customers with analytics and intelligence around customer interaction with displays, including data on the number of people who look at displays; how long people look for; the number of people who walk by; how long people stay near displays; and anonymous semographics of the display’s audience (gender and age bracket).

Intel and CognoVision actually have an existing relationship. Cognovision has partnered with Intel to show how processors are used in Digital Signage applications.

So, The Electronics Retailer, Best Buy is buying Napster. The deal which looks good in Best Buy's favor is a good way to expand beyond just consumer electronics. This looks to be a positive step with future in mind and something that will differentiate Best Buy from it's competitors like Circuit City.

Good Analysis and coverage here.

PaidContent.org: The Next Chapter: Best Buy To Acquire Napster For $121 Million

ReadWriteWeb: Best Buy Acquires Napster: But Why?

Silicon Alley Insider: Sold! Best Buy Swallows Napster For $121 Million (BBY)

After Oracle, it's now SAP's turn to go shopping for Retail Tech vendors. Now who has not done it's holiday shopping, Microsoft?

In a move to further extend its leading market position in the retail software space, SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced that it is acquiring privately held Khimetrics, Inc., a leading U.S.-based provider of enterprise software solutions that allow retailers to analyze how to price and position items to boost margins and optimize demand, deliver accurate profitability forecasts and implement long-term sales strategies that promote customer retention.
The acquisition of Khimetrics comes in the wake of SAP's recent acquisition of Triversity -- the leading North American provider of customer- centric, point-of-sale software solutions -- demonstrating continuing evidence of SAP's strategy to acquire narrowly-focused solutions that enhance its offerings and address specific customers' business challenges. The advanced analytical pricing and forecasting technologies from Khimetrics complement SAP's recently added in-store solution and will build on SAP's market-leading retail offering, which extends from the enterprise back office through the retail supply chain and to the store.

Here is another company (other being Oracle) that is on buying spree. After buying Weblogs.com and RSS content feed provider, Moreover Technologies, Verisign has bought Reatils Solutions Inc.

The deal pushes VeriSign squarely into delivering point-of-sale (POS) data, which is gathered at cash registers when customers pay for merchandise at stores, to retailers and consumer-goods and pharmaceutical companies, including Unilever and GlaxoSmithKline, respectively. "Companies want this data so they know exactly what's happening in a store at any given time," said Jeff Richards, vice president of VeriSign’s Intelligent Supply Chain Services business. "But when you provide this information, you're talking about a massive up-tick in the amount of data, billions and billions of records, you need to process." ...

VeriSign now has the tools to build on its infrastructure services in radio frequency identification (RFID) and electronic product code (EPC) technologies in which POS data increasingly is being combined. VeriSign in May shelled-out $15 million for R4 Global Solutions, a consulting-services vendor that assists companies using RFID, electronic product codes, and other data-related supply-chain technologies.

The goal is to combine services from both acquisitions -- tying POS with RFID/EPC data -- to provide real-time visibility and accurate inventory information on products in the supply chain to consumer goods companies, such as Kimberly-Clark Corp. and Gillette Co., which are working on RFID programs with retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp., and Albertson's Inc.

Tying the POS with EPC data embedded in RFID tags on cases and pallets of products will give consumer goods companies visibility into when well-timed promotional items, from razors to shaving cream, and advertising displays are brought from back storerooms at retailers and onto store floors. When the products are sold, the POS data is cross-checked against the RFID/EPC data.