...a matter of months to a year post-acquisition. And to wrap…there are six letters may sink any revival of M&A: DOJ (Department of Justice) and FTC (Federal Trade Commission), with a commission relishing their activist role. Draft Merger Guidelines that update corporate merger guidelines originally from 1968 but updated many times since. The 13 Guidelines drafted by DOJ Antitrust and the FTC have the intent to prevent mergers that threaten competition or create monopolies. But reading them, nearly every merger or acquisition other than in a horizontal or conglomerate model will be in violation of one of the 13. [TTA... Continue Reading
Search Results for CVS-Aetna merger
Babylon Health shuts US operations, goes into UK receivership
Babylon reached the end of the runway, smack into the lights and barriers. In the US, Babylon Health shut its Austin, TX headquarters on Monday 7 August, the same date as the announcement of the termination of their merger with AlbaCore Capital and their MindMaze business [TTA 8 Aug]. The required filing of a closure notice with the Texas Workforce Commission came to light late yesterday. The layoff of 94 employees left in the office was immediate and the closure permanent. As of this writing, there is no change to their US website, but LinkedIn has many posts from the... Continue Reading
Babylon merger with AlbaCore and MindMaze collapses, selling UK and transitioning US businesses, bankruptcy anticipated
...around $6 in May. Despite some success in the US market with payers, developing chronic care management programs for high-risk patients, reorganizing as a foreign private issuer to a domestic one, and the reverse share split on 15 December 2022, this last ‘rabbit out of hat’ didn’t work and apparently AlbaCore’s deal with a forced merger with a very different company, MindMaze in neurotherapeutics, didn’t work either. ‘Wicked Tuna’ indeed. At present, there are no further announcements or changes on the website, nor any confirmed layoffs, a situation which undoubtedly will change. Also Mobihealthnews, Healthcare Dive, Sifted (UK/EU), and UKTN... Continue Reading
Short takes: CVS’ $1.12M Q2 net income loss, forecast spurs 5,000 layoffs; Signify’s in-home kidney exams; Indonesia’s Halodoc $100M D; FeelBetter raises $5.9M; Medicare breach hits 612,000 beneficiaries
...CVS Caremark (pharmacy benefit). CVS has 300,000 employees (75% full time) including part and full-time retail workers. They are also reducing corporate travel, plus the use of consultants and vendors. (CVS is known to have extremely low contractor rates already.) The restructuring is projected to save $700 to $800 million next year, but cold comfort to the 5,000 who won’t be there. FierceHealthcare. We’ll see. One of those CVS purchases, Signify Health, is moving forward with an in-home option for evaluating kidney function as part of in-home exams of Medicare Advantage members. This evaluation will include urinalysis and estimated glomerular... Continue Reading
Another antitrust shoe drops: FTC, DOJ publish Draft Merger Guidelines for comment–what are the effects?
...be used singly or in combination for these agencies to determine “whether a merger is unlawfully anticompetitive under the antitrust laws.” Mergers should not significantly increase concentration in highly concentrated markets; Mergers should not eliminate substantial competition between firms; Mergers should not increase the risk of coordination; Mergers should not eliminate a potential entrant in a concentrated market; Mergers should not substantially lessen competition by creating a firm that controls products or services that its rivals may use to compete; Vertical mergers should not create market structures that foreclose competition; Mergers should not entrench or extend a dominant position; Mergers... Continue Reading
Legal roundup: Teladoc class-action suit dismissed; NextGen EHR $31M Federal settlement; significant AliveCor-Apple antitrust ‘spoiliation’ update; class action suits filed against HCA, Johns Hopkins
...were overly positive and inflated share value. Judge Denise Cote agreed with Teladoc’s 20 January motion to dismiss based on specific disclosures that Teladoc made in multiple SEC filings in that period from the 2020 10-K on that countered claims made in the class action lawsuit. Reading Judge Cote’s decision, Teladoc used specific limiting and warning language (what marketers call ‘downside’ language) on the risks around the merger. Their executives in public statements indicated that operations and competition were challenging. The class action suit failed to prove conclusively that the statements it identified were ‘materially misleading’ and would mislead a... Continue Reading
Thursday short takes: Fold Health VBC $6M round, Vivalink’s RPM in Burma rural health, Vytalize adds two to board, layoffs at TytoCare, IntelyCare
...Aledade, Privia Health, Evolent Health, CVS Health, Optum, and Collaborative Health Systems (Centene). FierceHealthcare, Vytalize release Layoffs continue to affect healthcare both in the US and overseas. New York/Tel Aviv-based TytoCare has laid off 20 employees, 10% of its 200-person workforce. 10 are in Israel, where it employs 135 people. TytoCare, which TTA has covered since 2016 as it’s diversified from home-based telehealth + device diagnostics primarily for child home care into providers and health plans and most recently for respiratory wheeze detection, had a last round of $50 million in March 2021. CTech/Calcalist (Israel), Becker’s, Jewish Business News Boston-based... Continue Reading
Why the ‘insurtechs’ didn’t revolutionize health insurance–and the damage they may have done
...Health $1.3 billion. All three have struggled to stay clear of the insolvency precipice, with Friday Health Plans going over [TTA 23 June]. Bright Health Group will be exiting the insurance business after this year with the stock sale of their plans to Molina Healthcare–provided they survive to Q1 2024 [TTA 6 July]. Oscar and Clover have exited states and cut back offerings. In April, in a real retrenching, Oscar hired on Mark Bertolini, late of Aetna, pushing back a founder to an operational role. This Editor, in a marketing assessment for a client two years ago, believed as many... Continue Reading
Bright Health to exit insurance business, selling California plans to Molina for up to $600 million–contingent on surviving to 2024
...transaction is subject to federal and state regulatory approvals, the solvency and continued operation as a going concern of Bright Health Group throughout the pre-closing period, and other closing conditions. It is expected to close in the first quarter of 2024.” Molina is atypical–it is the largest ‘pure’ health plan group serving over 5 million members. Unlike UHG, CVS Health, and Cigna, it long ago shed healthcare-related service businesses to concentrate on plans and plans only. The deal adds about $1 to their $5.50 share price. What’s left at Bright Health Group is NeueHealth, also called their Consumer Care Delivery... Continue Reading
FTC, DOJ float enhanced information requirements for HSR premerger notification filing process–what will be M&A effects?
FTC, DOJ are now coming after M&A–and you thought they were tough before? New information disclosure requirements proposed by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division for mergers and acquisitions that fall under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act (HSR) may put a damper on an already stagnant business area. On Tuesday 27 June, FTC, notably taking the lead with the concurrence of DOJ, released multiple proposed changes to the premerger notification filing process, the most extensive since they were first published in 1978 after HSR was passed in 1976. HSR premerger notification is required for... Continue Reading
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