California company withdraws offer

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Friday, Aug. 13, 1999 | 11:28 a.m.

A California company withdrew its bid to acquire Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Nevada.

WellPoint Health Networks Inc., Thousand Oaks, Calif., last month offered $266 million for Denver-based Rocky Mountain Hospital & Medical Service Inc.

Rocky Mountain owns Blue Cross of Colorado, which has 460,000 members, and the Nevada operation, which has 75,000 members.

Rocky Mountain will continue its plans to be bought out by Anthem Inc., Indianapolis, which operates the Blue Cross outlets in Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio and also is buying operations in New Hampshire and Maine.

WellPoint attempted to outbid Anthem for Rocky Mountain, but negotiations broke down over details of the company's payment of break-up fees.