Caremark/Express: Pay for delay

Call it pay for delay. CVS always claimed that Express Scripts’ $26bn bid for Caremark, the prescription benefits manager that the drugstore chain had agreed to buy, suffered from two basic problems. First, there was no certainty the Federal Trade Commission would approve the merger of the two rival benefits managers. And CVS’s offer was financially superior because it would close several months quicker. Express has turned this argument on its head through the use of a so-called «ticking fee. «...