- Dubai's Debt Woes Signal New Era for Creditors
- US Treasury Wants Banks to Do More to Ease Mortgages
- Fed Audit Would Hurt Economic Prospects: Bernanke
- Next Week: Cash In Now Or Wait For A Santa Rally?
- Dubai Stock Selloff May Bring Buying Opportunity
- Black Friday Sales Rise by 0.5%: ShopperTrak
- Longer Lines, Fuller Carts This Black Friday
- Big US Banks May Be Forced to Raise Capital: Bove
- Bank of America Amends Pay for Senior Executives
- U.S. Stocks Fall on Dubai Worries
- Black Friday at Best Buy
- Strategists on Dubai: Avoid 'Rash Moves' Now
- Longer Lines, Fuller Carts This Black Friday
- Dubai Stock Market Fear Has 'Legs': Dennis Gartman
- Obama's Emission Reduction Pledge Paints Future for Autos
- Is Super Bowl Halftime Act Too Old?
- Surprising Options Trades in TiVo Shares
- EA Sports Hopes to Pump Up Sales Through Pop-Up Locations
Text Size 
Health insurer UnitedHealth Group [UNH
Loading...
()
] said on Monday it would acquire Las Vegas-based Sierra Health Services [SIE
Loading...
()
] for $43.50 per share, or about $2.6 billion, to help it expand in the fast-growing U.S. Southwest.
The deal will add about 310,000 employer-sponsored health plan members in Nevada to UnitedHealth's rolls as well as about 320,000 people from senior and government programs throughout the United States.
UnitedHealth is offering Sierra shareholders $43.50 per share in cash, a 21% premium over Sierra's closing price on Friday. The deal must be cleared by Sierra shareholders and regulators in Nevada, California and Texas.
But UnitedHealth expects the transaction to close by the end of the year.
United Health expects the transaction to add about 4 cents a share to earnings in the first 12 months following the closing. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial expect the company to earn $3.98 per share in 2008.
UnitedHealth said it will not include the additional earnings in its outlook until the transaction has closed.
Should the deal not close, Sierra will be obligated to pay a break-up fee of about $85 million under certain circumstances.
UnitedHealth will fund the transaction with cash on hand, cash flows from operations and normal capital market activities.
Separately, UnitedHealth reiterated its intention to buy back about $4 billion to $4.5 billion in stock in 2007 under an ongoing share repurchase program.
Print
Email
- These four sectors will be the next to lead the market.
- Zhu Zhu Pets are this year's must-have toy, fetching $40 or more on eBay.
- From the why-didn’t-I-think-of-that file, we present Jason Sadler, a man whose job is wearing T-shirts.
- It may be the most unusual guide to business you'll read.
- Shopping for a gadget hound? The choices can be baffling. Here are a few that should be a hit.
- "The Who" will be the halftime act for Super Bowl XLIV on Feb. 7 in Miami. Is the NFL behind the times?
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes