Various media outlets reported on Thursday that Anthem Inc. and Cigna Corp. were close to reaching an agreement as early as this afternoon and before the week was through. The merger would come after health insurer Cigna rejected a $54 billion overture from Anthem at the end of June. Cigna noted that the proposal minimized shareholder value and came with a laundry list of negatives for the insurer. Indianapolis-based Anthem offered to purchase Cigna for $184 per share in cash and stock. That proposal valued the company at $53.8 billion, a 35.4% premium based on Cigna’s closing price on May 28, Anthem said. The proposal consists of 31.4% Anthem shares and 68.6% cash. Cigna rejected the proposal because of the monetary amount as well as the fact that its CEO would not take the helm of the combined companies. Under the terms of the original overture was that Anthem wanted its president and CEO Joseph Swedish, to take on roles including chairman of the board, CEO, president and head of integration. The pushback came despite the fact that Cigna’s CEO David Cordani would collect $130 million over the next two years from change-of-control provisions and be in the running for the CEO role after a couple of years. It was expected that Anthem would reach out to shareholders of Cigna to help move the deal along.
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