Healthcare giant Aetna has made a takeover proposal to Humana, Louisville’s largest employer, according to a Saturday report by the Wall Street Journal.
Referencing anonymous sources that are “familiar with the matter” the Journal says Aetna made the proposal in the last few days after more than an month of rumors of a sale to companies like Aetna and Cigna.
Earlier this week, Mayor Greg Fischer cautioned against reading too much into each reported development.
“Look, Humana is a major player – a top five player in a big industry, so they are always going to be in play whether they are buying or people are talking about buying them,” he said. “You have a deal that could fall apart, Humana could be doing something we don’t know about [and] so as a city, we’ve got to make sure we have the right workforce here so no matter what, we grow.”
Aetna reportedly makes proposal for Humana
About 14,000 from Kentuckiana are employed or do contract work with Humana.
According to the Wall Street Journal, it isn’t clear how much Aetna offered to pay for Humana which is valued at $30 billion.
Humana has been mum on the topic since rumors of the sale surfaced in May. They healthcare company says they won’t comment until second quarter earnings which are due out at the end of July.
