Walgreens was scheduled in two years to celebrate its 100th year as a publicly traded company. Now the storied pharmacist and retailer won’t honor that milestone, because it no longer will be publicly owned.

Months after reports that the long-trusted, Deerfield-based retail giant was considering selling to a private equity firm, the $10 billion deal with New York-based Sycamore Partners was unveiled late Thursday.

The highly complex transaction involving multiple banks and many layers of financing marks anything but success for Walgreens management and Walgreens Chairman Stefano Pessina, the Italian magnate who is largely responsible for the sprawling mess this company has become. It’s a low-premium waving of the white flag aimed at extricating shareholders from an investment that management clearly believes has no significant upside in any kind of reasonable time frame.

Walgreens Boots Alliance’s stock topped $55 just four years ago. Thursday it closed at $10.60, and the company agreed to sell to Sycamore for $11.45 per share. Sure, there’s the potential for another $3 per share for Walgreens shareholders if future divestitures pan out well, but the bottom line is many shareholders will be asked to vote to cement losses that for now are just on paper. In the deal announcement, Walgreens CEO Tim Wentworth said “value creation will take time, focus and change that is better managed as a private company.”