Drug store chain CVS Caremark Corp. said Tuesday that it's buying Longs Drug Stores Corp. in a deal valued at $2.7 billion, excluding the assumption of debt.

The $71.50 per-share cash offer was announced after the end of trading and is a 32 percent premium over Walnut Creek, Calif.-based Longs' closing price of $54.04.

Longs' shares leaped 30 percent, or $16.21, to $70.25 in after-hours trading.

Including the assumption of the chain's $200 million in debt, the deal would be valued at about $2.9 billion.

Longs has 521 drugstores in California, Hawaii, Nevada and Arizona and also operates Rx America, a prescription benefits management program that services more than 8 million members.

Executives at Woonsocket, Rhode Island-based CVS said the deal will give the nation's largest provider of prescriptions significant inroads in fast-growing markets as well as the chain's first locations in Hawaii.

"Geographic reach has become a more important thing for us," CVS Chief Financial Officer David Rickard told The Associated Press in an interview.

The Longs stores in the continental United States will be converted to the CVS brand, Rickard said. But sites in Hawaii will remain Longs.

The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter.

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