NU Online News Service, April 7, 2003, 10:23 a.m. EDT – WellPoint Health Networks Inc., Thousand Oaks, Calif., says it is giving up on its efforts to acquire CareFirst Inc., Owings Mills, Md.
WellPoint, a large California managed care company, offered $1.37 billion for CareFirst, the parent company of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies in Delaware, Maryland, Northern Virginia and the District of Columbia, in November 2001.
Under Maryland law, CareFirst is a nonprofit company that holds its assets in trust for the people of the state. CareFirst offered to compensate the people of Maryland by using the proceeds from the sale to WellPoint to create a new health care charity.