Mergers and Such: You Can't Tell The Players Without a Program

When I was a kid we used to go to the ballpark for baseball games and always, always, the barker would be shouting "Get your programs, get your programs here.  You can't tell the players without a program".  I think I'm having a deja vu.

If I have this right, it looks like the following.......

• Assurant Health is for-sale-by-owner to any buyer 
• Aetna wants to acquire Humana, who is exploring a sale, but...........
• United Health wants to acquire Aetna (would that deal include Humana?)
• Anthem wants to merge with Cigna, both of which have been looking at buying Humana

The Anthem talks for Cigna also show that the next deal in the industry won�t necessarily be a sale of Humana, as many industry watchers expected. Indeed, if Anthem and Cigna were to get together, that would remove two possible buyers of Humana, which could leave it with only one major merger partner, Aetna, which itself now is a takeover target.

Read the entire article here

Dave