Question

In 2015, Anthem Blue Cross bid to acquire CIGNA in a $54 billion deal. If approved, this would have created the largest health insurer in the nation. What happened to this merger, and which government agencies got involved to oppose this merger? Also in 2015, a second merger was proposed between Aetna and Humana for $37 billion. What happened to this merger, and which government agencies got involved to oppose this merger?

Answer 1

Anthem bid to acquire Cigna for $3.8 billion was rejected by the Cigna shareholders citing the fact that it was not in the best interest of the shareholders. Even after Anthem raised the offer price upto $184 a share, it was rejected by the shareholders. The government entity involved was the US justice department and it went to court to stop the deal as it would have created a behemoth in an already concentrated market. The US courts finally blocked the deal.

The deal with Aetna and Humana for $37 billion met with a similar fate with US Justice department going to court and after 19 months of delibrations, Aetna and Humana announced that the deal would not go through as courts have ruled against it.