Centene Snares Health Net for $6.8 Billion

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.