CI Cigna Group

By Joshua Jamerson 

Anthem Inc. has filed a lawsuit against Cigna Corp. in an attempt to salvage the health-insurers $48 billion tie-up, a move that comes a day after Cigna said it would walk away from the deal.

Anthem said Wednesday that is had filed a lawsuit in the Delaware Court of Chancery seeking a temporary restraining order to enjoin Cigna from terminating or taking any action contrary to the terms of their merger agreement.

"Anthem believes that there is still sufficient time and a viable path forward potentially to complete the transaction," the company said.

Cigna said Tuesday that it filed a lawsuit against Anthem seeking more than $13 billion in damages to its shareholders and a $1.85 billion breakup fee.

A representative for Cigna wasn't immediately reachable for comment.

The dueling lawsuits escalated a monthslong fight in which the two companies have accused each other of violating their merger agreement and comes after Aetna Inc. and Humana Inc. terminated their merger agreement on Tuesday. The two deals, worth a combined $82 billion, are unraveling in the wake of court rulings that found the transactions violated federal antitrust law, all but quashing a deal boom that would have reshaped the industry.

Write to Joshua Jamerson at joshua.jamerson@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 15, 2017 07:11 ET (12:11 GMT)

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