CHICAGO _ Abbott has filed a complaint seeking to terminate its planned acquisition of health care diagnostics company Alere Inc.
Since Abbott, headquartered outside Chicago, agreed to acquire Alere earlier this year for $5.8 billion, Alere has "suffered a series of damaging business developments" including the government eliminating the billing privileges of an Alere division; the recall of a product platform; and government investigations, among other things, Abbott said in a news release Wednesday.
"Alere is no longer the company Abbott agreed to buy 10 months ago," Abbott spokesman Scott Stoffel said in the release. "These numerous negative developments are unprecedented and are not isolated incidents brought on by chance. We have attempted to secure details and information to assess these issues for months, and Alere has blocked every attempt. This damage to Alere's business can only be the result of a systemic failure of internal controls, which combined with the lack of transparency, led us to filing this complaint."
Attempts to reach Alere for comment were not immediately successful Wednesday morning.
Abbott filed its complaint in the Delaware Court of Chancery.
