Anthem Inc (NYSE:ANTM) isn’t ready to give up on its merger with Cigna Corporation (NYSE:CI), despite it being blocked in court.
Anthem Inc says that it will now be reaching out to the Supreme Court in an effort to get approval for its merger with Cigna Corporation. This will have it filing a petition for a writ of certiorari to review merger precedents.
Anthem Inc is arguing that the merger precedents that were relied upon by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit are outdated. It is seeking a review from the Supreme Court in an effort to have these precedents updated for modern times.
Anthem Inc argument includes citing Judge Kavanaugh. In his dissent, the judge agreed that a merger between ANTM and Cigna Corporation would “be beneficial to the employer-customers” that get their insurance from the two companies. However, the majority still stood in favor of blocking the merger.
Anthem Inc and Cigna Corporation have been working on this merger deal since mid-2015. There were fears of the deal being blocked by the Department of Justice (DOJ) when news first spread. However, ANTM and CI still thought it could work.
The deal between Anthem Inc and Cigna Corporation also faced its own troubles without the worry of the merger being blocked. The companies’ CEO reportedly fought over responsibilities for once the merger was complete in mid-2016. It was also around this time that unnamed sources said the DOJ was likely to block the merger.
ANTM stock was up slightly and CI stock was up 1% as of Friday morning.
