Business Dinner

$1.9-billion CVS-Target deal came together over dinner.

Target Corp. Chief Executive Officer Brian Cornell hatched the $1.9 billion plan to sell the company’s pharmacies over dinner with his counterpart at CVS Health Corp., capitalizing on his relationships from a career spent in retail.

Cornell and CVS’s CEO, Larry Merlo, have known each other for years and are occasional dinner companions, letting them share thoughts about running two of the biggest chains in the U.S. The plan to have Woonsocket-based CVS buy the pharmacies and operate them within Target’s stores, announced on Monday, was “a collective idea,” Merlo said.

“We would get together for dinner from time to time and we always compared notes in terms of challenges, opportunities,” he said.
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