After a year of fighting and lawsuits, Abbott Laboratories and Alere Inc. have agreed to make up and tie the knot after all - in a new deal worth about $5.3 billion.

Amanda Pedersen

Breaking up is hard to do, especially when a multi-billion contract is at stake.

Perhaps that realization is what ultimately motivated Abbott Laboratories and Alere Inc. to finding some common ground, and reconciling a merger agreement that is now valued at $5.3 billion, down from the original price of $5.8 billion.

The two companies were due to hash it out in court later this month, with Abbott arguing that Alere is "not the same company" that Abbott agreed to buy last year, and Alere trying to hold Abbott's feet to the fire and force the deal to go through.

The companies now expect to close the transaction by the end of the third quarter of 2017. Waltham, MA-based Alere develops rapid diagnostics products for cardiometabolic disease, infectious disease, and toxicology.

Amanda Pedersen is Qmed's news editor. Contact her at [email protected].

[Image courtesy of Pixabay]