Abbey Healthcare Loses Its Fight for Lifetime Corp. : Medical: The Boston-based home health care firm announced it will accept an offer from Olsten Corp.

Abbey Healthcare Group Inc., a Costa Mesa-based maker and supplier of home medical care products, appears to have lost its two-month battle to buy a New England competitor.

Boston-based Lifetime Corp., the parent of home-nursing services provider Kimberly Quality Care, announced Monday that it has agreed to be bought by a New York company for stock valued at $33 a share, or about $600 million.

The offer from Olsten Corp. of Westbury, N.Y., far surpasses Abbey’s buyout bid earlier this year of $27.50 a share in cash. “This honestly looks like the last chapter,” Lifetime spokesman Greg Miller said Monday. “It’s pretty well nailed down.”

Abbey officials were not available Monday to say whether the company will continue to press its proxy fight to oust Lifetime Chairman Anthony Reeves, or attempt to scuttle the Olsten deal.

Abbey launched the proxy fight after Lifetime decided to put the company up for auction--after saying it was rejecting Abbey’s offer because it was too low and the company was not interested in a merger.

Abbey’s move to purchase Lifetime would have created the nation’s largest home health care agency. Such a merger also would have positioned the company to take advantage of health care reforms proposed by the White House, Abbey said. Health care experts generally agree that home health care will become a major component of cost-cutting reforms.

Nevertheless, the buyout was considered by some analysts to be a long shot. Lifetime, with 1992 revenue of nearly $900 million, is more than three times as large as Abbey, which had sales of $249 million last year.

Abbey, however, has performed better, earning $10.4 million for 1992, compared to Lifetime’s profit of $5.2 million.

Lifetime’s stock rose sharply after Monday’s announcement, gaining $2.875 a share to close at $29.75 in trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Abbey’s stock was also up, rising $1.75 a share to close at $19.25 on the NASDAQ market.

Olsten, traded on the American Stock Exchange, lost 25 cents a share to close at $27.