A Washington federal judge excoriated a U.S. Justice Department lawyer Thursday for keeping him “in the dark” about the consummation of CVS Health’s $69 billion acquisition of Aetna Inc. and urged the companies to wait for a final judgment on the deal before integrating their operations.

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, appearing livid at times, accused the Justice Department and the two companies of treating his antitrust review of the acquisition as a “rubber stamp operation.” And he expressed concern about how the integration of CVS and Aetna, which completed their merger Wednesday, would be unwound in the event that he rejects their merger.

This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.

To view this content, please continue to their sites.

Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Why am I seeing this?

LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.

For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]