WellPoint Agrees to Buy Cobalt

WellPoint Health Networks Inc. agreed to buy Cobalt Corp. for about $20.50 a share in cash and stock to gain a health-care company that serves about 800,000 members.

WellPoint will pay $10.25 in cash and exchange 0.1233 of a WellPoint share for each Cobalt share, said Ken Ferber, a spokesman for Thousand Oaks-based WellPoint.

Milwaukee-based Cobalt is the parent of Blue Cross & Blue Shield United of Wisconsin and has about 800,000 members, mostly in Wisconsin, Ferber said.

WellPoint shares rose 10 cents to $83.15 and Cobalt shares fell 5 cents to $17.95, both on the NYSE.

From Bloomberg News