Rumors in the M&A market often contain a grain of truth. Last month, for example, we wrote that New York’s newly public WellChoice (NYSE: WC) was said to be in negotiations to buy Oxford Health Plans (NYSE: OHP) in an all-stock deal. WC admitted to holding talks...
Preliminary results are in the for the first quarter health care merger and acquisition market. Based on publicly announced deals, a total of 198 transactions were reported in Q1:04 in 13 sectors of health care. Although this represents a 15% drop from the 234 deals...
Whenever legislators turn their attention to health care and attempt to reform or even just tweak the laws, providers, payors and everybody in between start to get nervous and put their hands on their wallets. Our readers will recall the ambiguous results of the...
Hostile bids in the Pharmaceutical sector are rarer than hen’s teeth. So rare in fact that only one comes readily to mind, Pfizer’s (NYSE: PFE) $90 billion acquisition of Warner-Lambert in mid-2000. And even then, what began as a hostile bid in late 1999 turned...
Merger and acquisition activity in the health care industry remained relatively steady during the fourth quarter of 2003. With a total of 221 deals announced, Q4:03 registered just a 4% dip against the 230 transactions announced in the previous quarter (Q3:03). Deal...
Merger and acquisition activity in the health care industry was brisk in 2003. We estimate the year will close with 875 deals which, based on prices revealed to date, are collectively worth $90 billion. These figures receded somewhat from last year’s levels. The year...