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.
Even as Cigna talks with Anthem, it remains involved in the
continuing sales process for Humana Inc. as a suitor, people
familiar with the matter said. In that potential tie-up, it is
vying with Aetna Inc., which has made a takeover proposal for
Humana.
Cigna publicly rejected the previous Anthem 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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