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Anthem Inc. has agreed to acquire rival Cigna Corp. for $54 billion, creating the health insurance industry's biggest company by enrollment. The agreement announced Friday caps weeks of frenzied dealmaking in the healthcare sector. Aetna Inc. reached a $37-billion deal for Humana Inc. this month. And Woodland Hills insurer Health Net Inc. agreed to be acquired by Medicaid insurer Centene Corp. for $6.8 billion. (Terhune, 7/24)

The deal would shrink the number of major health insurers in the United States and comes just weeks after Aetna agreed to acquire Humana, the smallest of the big five insurers, for $37 billion in cash and stock. A combined Anthem-Cigna would have estimated revenue of about $115 billion and serve more than 53 million people with medical coverage. (Bray, 7/24)

Anthem Inc. agreed to buy Cigna Corp. for more than $48 billion in a transaction that, along with a previously proposed combination of rivals, could reshape the U.S. health industry. ... The tie-up of Anthem and Cigna would accelerate the rapid-fire reconfiguration at the top of the U.S. managed-care industry. The biggest companies are seeking more cost efficiency and scale as the health-care landscape changes because of the Affordable Care Act and other factors. ... Of the five largest health insurers, only UnitedHealth Group Inc., the largest by revenue, is sitting out the merger wave, at least so far. (Mattioli, Wilde Mathews and Dulaney, 7/24)

The health services companies said that Anthem, Inc. (ANTM), a Blue Cross and Blue Shield insurer, would buy all of Cigna Corp.'s (CI) shares in a cash and stock transaction. The latest step in a striking consolidation of the insurance industry would leave only three major players. (Smith, 7/24)