By Dana Mattioli
Health insurers Anthem Inc. and Cigna Corp. are in talks to
combine after Cigna last month spurned a $47.5 billion takeover
from Anthem, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Representatives of the companies met Friday and Tuesday to
discuss a potential tie-up, the person said. A deal could be
reached in coming weeks, the person said, though there is no
guarantee the latest round of talks will result in a tie-up.
Cigna publicly rejected the previous offer, calling it
"inadequate and not in the best interests of Cigna's shareholders."
Shares of Cigna, which is based in Bloomfield, Conn., closed
Wednesday at $162 each. The company's market capitalization is
around $42.6 billion. That is just below Anthem's market value of
$43.6 billion.
The talks come amid a flurry of discussions among the top five
health insurers aimed at striking deals that will enable them to be
more competitive in a health-care landscape dramatically altered by
the Affordable Care Act and other developments.
Anthem has been trying to combine with Cigna for nearly a year,
but the two companies have struggled to agree on price and other
terms, including who would run the combined company. The effort
came to a head on a June Saturday when Anthem disclosed a series of
bids that month, including, most recently at $184 a share. Anthem
made the offers public to appeal to Cigna shareholders in the hopes
they would force the company to do a deal.
Write to Dana Mattioli at dana.mattioli@wsj.com
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