In June 2021 it was acquired by a consortium of private equity firms Blackstone, Carlyle and Hellman & Friedman valuing the company at $34 billion in one of the largest leveraged buyouts of all time.

[2][3] It is the nation's largest privately held manufacturer and distributor of medical supplies providing products, education, clinical programs and services across the continuum of care with operations in over 125 countries and territories.

In 1966, A.L.’s grandsons Jim and Jon Mills left Cenco and founded Medline with approximately 12,000 square feet of warehouse space and one loading dock in Evanston, IL.

In 2011, Medline introduced BioMask, the first-ever FDA-cleared antiviral medical facemask shown to inactivate flu viruses.

Its 35,000+ employees extend to over 125 countries and territories (such as USA, Canada, Mexico,[13] Spain, Germany, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Japan, Australia and New Zealand) and include clinicians, researchers, engineers, financial experts and 2,000 direct sales representatives.

[15] In October 2007, former employee, Sean Mason, filed a qui tam suit on behalf of the United States against Medline alleging the company the False Claims Act and the Illinois Whistleblower Reward and Protection Act by: 1) providing bribes and kickbacks to healthcare providers; 2) fraudulently inducing the Federal government to agree to improper tracking customers in procurement contracts and then giving below-government pricing to those tracking customers; and 3) overbilling the Federal government's mail-order pharmacy program.

Mason claimed these kickbacks were falsely labeled as "rebates," and that Medline paid expensive gifts and made charitable donations to solicit business.