Alere Spins Off Assets to Aid Abbott Merger

Alere Spins Off Assets to Aid Abbott Merger

Since February 2016, we’ve followed the testy merger between Abbott (NYSE: ABT) and Alere’s (NYSE: ALR) agreement to merge, followed by the respective lawsuits, and then the price renegotiation. Half way through 2017, the $5.3 billion deal is getting closer to completion, as Alere spins off some assets to comply with antitrust regulations. The first to go is Alere’s Triage® MeterPro cardiovascular (CV) and toxicology assets (“Triage business”), together with the B-type Naturietic Peptide (BNP) assay business run on Beckman Coulter analyzers (“BNP business”). The buyer is  Quidel Corporation (NASDAQ: QDEL), which will acquire the Triage business, including real estate for the San... Read More »

Abbott and Alere: The Wedding Is Back On!

It seems so long ago. Back in February 2016,  Abbott (NYSE: ABT) and Alere Inc. (NYSE: ALR) announced their $5.8 billion deal. Abbott’s board okay’ed paying $56 per common share of Alere, representing a 51% premium to the company’s close on January 28, 2016. Abbott also assumed $2.6 billion of debt. The combination was expected to create a premier point-of-care testing business and to strengthen Abbott’s diagnostics presence. Alere’s main business is its point-of-care diagnostics and services, which are focused on the areas of infectious disease, cardio-metabolic disease, and toxicology. Point of care testing is a $5.5 billion segment, and one... Read More »

Laboratories, MRI & Dialysis Deals Dropped in 2016

Deal volume settled down in 2016, following a very busy 2015 in the Laboratories, MRI & Dialysis sector. The 41 deals recorded represent a 21% decline compared with the 52 announced in 2015. Laboratories have had to adapt as hospitals and health systems have merged or closed in recent years. Some labs have evolved to offer coordinated diagnostics: offering tests that give on-the-spot diagnoses, handling bills and lab data from several sources and providers as an aid to accountable care organizations, and focusing on the patient experience to ensure repeat business. At the same time, deal value surged in 2016, up 166% year-over-year to $11.6 billion. Two multi-billion-dollar deals... Read More »

What’s Next for Managed Care?

The managed care mega-deals of 2015 have blown up. Aetna (NYSE: AET) and Humana (NYSE: HUM) amicably terminated their $37 billion merger, following a federal judge’s order in January to block the deal on antitrust grounds. The $1 billion termination fee was in the works. A different federal judge blocked Anthem (NYSE: ANTM) and Cigna’s (NYSE: CI) $54.2 billion merger on similar grounds. Things turned ugly quickly, as Cigna declared the deal dead and sued Anthem for the $1.85 billion termination fee, and another $13 billion in damages on behalf of its shareholders. Anthem says it will go ahead with the merger. What do the Big Five health insurers do now that they’re... Read More »

Abbott to Alere: It’s You, Not Me

The party’s about over for the $5.8 billion Abbott (NYSE: ABT) acquisition of Alere Inc. (NYSE: ALR). Everything was bright and rosy when Abbott agreed to pay $56.00 per share for the point-of-care diagnostics and services company. Now, the $177 million termination fee Abbott faces to get out of the deal looks pretty cheap. In April, Abbott reportedly offered Alere $50 million to terminate the deal, but got no takers. The trouble began almost immediately. The day of the announcement, February 1, Alere’s stock price shot up nearly 46%, to $54.11. But later that month,  it announced would delay filing its 2015 financial results with securities regulators due to revenue recognition... Read More »