Boston, MA 08/25/2014 (wallstreetpr) – Walgreen Company (NYSE:WAG) was impacted by a database failure last Friday, a development that impacted all its stores – 8,200 of them. The pharmacy operator was unable to process prescriptions during the technical problem that happened during a maintenance update and lasted for several hours, according to spokesman Michael Polzin.
The shares of Walgreen suffered a minor blow on Friday, dropping 0.03% to close at $61.05.
Problem fixed
According to the company, stores on the West Coast were impacted for just a few hours while stores on the East Coast remained down for the better part of the Friday morning. The technical glitch infuriated some Walgreen Company (NYSE:WAG) customers, and some even took to the social networks Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) and Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) to complain about their experiences at Walgreen pharmacies. The drugstore retailer was able to fix the problem, and all the stores were back online by Friday afternoon.
Walgreen Company (NYSE:WAG) processed about 528 million prescriptions during its 3Q2014, which was 2.3% better than in the like quarter last year. It expects to do more in the future.
Restore investor confidence
The technical glitch came at a time when the company is trying to restore confidence among its investors following nearly $1 billion in revenue forecast error. The company decreased its financial outlook for the year and even asked its Chief Financial Officer, Wade Miquelon and another official to leave the company.
Walgreen Company (NYSE:WAG) also unsettled some of its investors by the decision to shelf its tax inversion plans. The company was expected to acquire the remaining 55% in Alliance Boots that it does not already own and later shift its corporate headquarters away from the U.S. so it could lower its tax burden. However, the management decided to push forward only with the $15 billion acquisition of the rest of Alliance Boots, but keep the company’s tax offices in the U.S.
