O.C. Medical Firm Stymied in Buyout Bid : Acquisitions: Abbey Healthcare has apparently lost its battle to purchase Lifetime Corp., as the Boston competitor has accepted another offer.

Abbey Healthcare Group Inc., a 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 in a $600-million all-stock deal.

Olsten Corp. of Westbury, N.Y., is expected to pay Lifetime shareholders in stock worth about $33 a share. That 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, based in Costa Mesa, announced in March that it wanted to purchase Lifetime, a move that 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.

Abbey’s bid was greeted with enthusiasm by some analysts who follow both companies. They pointed out that Abbey’s chief executive, Timothy Aitken, has turned his company around in the past two years, while Lifetime has suffered.

Nevertheless, the buyout was considered by other 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.

Abbey’s March 22 offer was rebuffed immediately. Lifetime Chairman Anthony Reeves successfully fought Abbey’s overtures, saying first that his company was not interested in a merger, then that Abbey’s bid was too low.

Reeves decided a month later to put Lifetime on the auction block and consider all bids. Abbey retaliated by withdrawing its offer, promising a proxy fight and the nomination of its own candidate, Leonard Green, to run against Reeves at Lifetime’s annual meeting. Green is a director of OrNda Healthcorp in Nashville, Tenn.

Lifetime then postponed its annual meeting. Abbey officials were not available Monday to say whether the company will continue to press its proxy fight or attempt to scuttle the Olsten deal.

Miller said Monday that Lifetime and Olsten began negotiating after an April 14 meeting of Lifetime’s directors. Olsten, a temporary personnel placement agency, has a small division that specializes in home nursing services.

In a statement released Monday afternoon, Olsten Chairman Frank Liguori said that the buyout will boost Olsten’s position in a rapidly growing field. “The acquisition of Lifetime provides Olsten with a unique opportunity to dramatically expand Olsten’s home health care business,” he said.

Liguori said Olsten was also interested in Lifetime’s United Kingdom subsidiary, Office Angels, which provides temporary office personnel in the London area.

Officials of both companies said that the deal should close by Aug. 31, pending shareholder approval. Miller said he foresees no snags.

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.