A federal judge told Aetna that it will have to wait until December to make its case in defense of its proposed $37 billion acquisition of Humana, rejecting the insurer's request for an earlier trial.
U.S. District Judge John Bates scheduled a two week trial to begin on Dec. 5, meaning he will likely issue a decision on the case in January.
In response to the U.S. Department of Justice's decision last month to seek to block its deal — along with a similar proposed merger between Anthem and Cigna — Aetna asked for a trial as soon as September, saying it needed to happen soon to keep the tentative deal between the two companies from falling through.
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At issue for Aetna is a Dec. 31 deadline included in the merger deal with Humana. The latter company gets $1 billion if the companies aren't merged by that date. However, the Justice Department has argued that the two companies could agree to extend that deadline.
"Defendants filed these option dates themselves and they can alter them with the stroke of a pen," the Justice Department said in a filing.
Officials at both companies have said they plan to aggressively defend the merger.
Both the Aetna-Humana and Anthem-Cigna duos won a partial victory when Bates, who was originally assigned to overhear both cases, said he would not be able to handle both in a timely manner, and sent the Anthem-Cigna deal over to a colleague.
Anthem recently asked for an October trial, urging Judge Amy Berman Jackson to render a decision by the end of the year. She has indicated, however, that she anticipates a trial in December or January, reports Modern Healthcare.
In Anthem's case, if the merger is not approved by April 30, Cigna could abandon the deal and be owed $1.8 billion. And unlike Humana, Cigna officials have not-so-subtly hinted that that is a right they are considering exercising.
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