Anthem announced on Friday, May 12, 2017 that it delivered formal notice to Cigna of termination of the parties’ merger agreement. The announcement comes on the heels of a Delaware Chancery judge’s denial, issued late Thursday, of Anthem’s request for a preliminary injunction to block Cigna from terminating the merger agreement.

The Delaware Court of Chancery denied Anthem’s requested injunction in a hearing late Thursday, finding that Anthem was unlikely to overcome the many obstacles to consummation of the deal. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia blocked the transaction in February of this year after the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and several States challenged the deal on antitrust grounds. That ruling was upheld in April by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Anthem announced earlier this month that it planned to petition the United States Supreme Court for certiorari. The Delaware Court of Chancery explained that Anthem would not only have to win a Supreme Court appeal – it would also have to reach a settlement with DOJ regarding various anticompetitive concerns raised by DOJ and obtain an order from the Chancery Court ordering specific performance.

The denial of the injunction would have allowed Cigna to move forward with terminating the deal, but the ruling was stayed until after the weekend to allow Anthem time to appeal the denial to the Delaware Supreme Court. However, Anthem announced Friday that it would not pursue an appeal and had instead delivered formal notice to Cigna of termination of the parties’ merger agreement. This move leaves the parties to continue litigation over a $1.85 billion breakup fee and billions more in damages that Cigna alleges it is owed.

The case is Anthem Inc. v. Cigna Corp., No. 2017-0114 in the Delaware Court of Chancery (opinion unavailable).