NEW YORK (AP) — Rite Aid Corp., the nation’s third largest drugstore chain behind Walgreen and CVS, said Thursday it will purchase the U.S. Eckerd and Brooks operations of Canada’s Jean Coutu Group Inc. for about $2.55 billion in cash and stock.

The deal will make Rite Aid the largest drugstore chain operator on the East Coast.

Rite Aid will pay $1.45 billion in cash and 250 million shares valued at about $1.1 billion for Jean Coutu’s Brooks and Eckerd chains in the United States. The shares will give Jean Coutu a 32 percent common equity stake and 30.2 percent of the voting power in the expanded Rite Aid.

In addition, Rite Aid will assume $850 million of long-term debt as part of the deal.

The acquisition includes 1,858 drugstores — including 337 Brooks stores and 1,521 Eckerd stores — and six distribution centers, all located primarily on the East Coast and in the Mid-Atlantic states.