Centene Snares Health Net for $6.8 Billion

by | Jul 6, 2015 2:37 pm | Managed Care

And so it begins. The managed care merry-go-round picked up speed last week as Centene Corporation (NYSE: CNC) announced it would pay approximately $6.8 billion (including $500 million of debt) to acquire a smaller rival, Health Net, Inc. (NYSE: HNT). A day later, Aetna (NYSE: AET) and Humana (NYSE: HUM) agreed to a deal priced at $37 billion, including debt. That leaves Anthem Inc. (NYSE: ANTM) in pursuit of Cigna (NYSE: CI), which had turned down its latest offer of $47.5 billion the week before. All eyes are now on Molina Healthcare (NYSE: MOH) and WellCare Health Plans (NYSE: WCG), waiting to see if they are targets, or merger partners. Or both. Read More »

Second Quarter Health Care M&A Spending Tanks

by | Jul 6, 2015 2:30 pm | Biotechnology, Pharmaceuticals

It’s still early yet, but we can say with confidence that the second quarter of 2015 doesn’t hold a candle to last year’s second quarter, at least dollar-wise. Last year, deal volume and value hit all-time highs for all previous Q2s, coming in at 325 deals and $135.8 billion in spending on those deals. This year, deal volume was fairly steady at 312 (remember, these are preliminary figures for Q2:15) but deal value plummeted 60% to $54.2 billion. We’ll have more details in the July issue of Health Care M&A News, but in the meantime, here are the biggest deals of Q2:15.  Read More »

Juno Therapeutics Teams up with Celgene

by | Jul 6, 2015 2:23 pm | Other Services

Celgene Corporation (NASDAQ: CELG) made a big bet on a small company last week, when it agreed to pay nearly $1 billion to Juno Therapeutics (NASDAQ: JUNO) for a 10-year collaboration on immunotherapies targeting cancer and autoimmune diseases. The real price is $999,803,496 and consists of an upfront payment of $150 million, and the purchase of 9.1 million shares of JUNO common stock at a price of $93.00 per share. That’s a pretty generous offer, considering Juno’s stock price was bumping along around $54.00 late last week. Juno will be responsible for research and development in North America, and retains commercialization rights there. Celgene will be responsible for development and... Read More »

Madison Dearborn Buys into Rehab Products

by | Jul 6, 2015 2:16 pm | Medical Devices

Chicago-based private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners plunked down $715 million for Patterson Medical, a division of Patterson Companies (NASDAQ: PDCO). The parent company wants to focus on its dental and animal health businesses, and was looking for a buyer. Patterson Medical provides rehabilitation, assistive and splinting products around the world, which is clearly not great fit. Price-to-EBITDA was a mere 1.06x. Read More »