Anthem has thrown in the towel in its embattled bid to merge with fellow insurer Cigna.
The insurance company told a Delaware court Friday that it is terminating its merger bid with Cigna. The decision comes after a Delaware judge ruled Thursday that Cigna could walk away from the deal, which Anthem had tried to stop.
A federal judge had blocked the merger due to antitrust concerns. Anthem had asked the Supreme Court to weigh in on the decision, but changed course Friday.
Anthem said it won’t pay the $15 billion that Cigna is asking for — $1.85 billion in breakup fees and $13 billion in damages — and appears to have some sore feelings over the breakup.
“Cigna’s repeated willful breaches of the merger agreement and its successful sabotage of the transaction has caused Anthem to suffer massive damages, claims which Anthem intends to vigorously pursue against Cigna,” the insurer said.
Cigna responded that Anthem was required to get regulatory approval for the merger and do whatever it could to get it. However, Cigna said Anthem “willfully breached those obligations and as a result the transaction did not receive the requisite regulatory approvals.”
The Justice Department and several states sued to block the deal due to concerns about competition. The federal government also sued to block a merger between insurers Aetna and Humana, a deal that is also now defunct.
