Dive Brief:
- Anthem and Cigna are having some terse words during the regulatory approval process for the $48 billion proposed deal in which Anthem would acquire Cigna to become the largest health insurer in the U.S., The Wall Street Journal reported.
- The pair's squabbling over a variety of issues could negatively impact the timeliness and success of their antitrust approval.
- During the first five months in 2015, merger and acquisition activity in healthcare reached $241 billion, Healthcare Dive reported.
Dive Insight:
The insider correspondence reviewed by WSJ highlights the difficulty of a corporate megamerger and how the deal's greatest enemy could be its own parents.
The pair have quietly accused each other of violating their merger agreement and dropping the ball on paperwork and deadlines to regulators, according to WSJ.
Meanwhile, Anthem has accused Cigna of keeping back corporate information key to their proposal out of concern that they're still rivals. Anthem was also displeased about Cigna suggesting to investors recently that the deal may push into 2017 before closing, after which Anthem's general counsel accused Cigna's of trying to “spook the market.”
The letters also reveal tension that the deal's approval process is falling behind that of rivals Aetna and Humana, which experts said could put Anthem and Cigna at a disadvantage compared to being reviewed simultaneously.