Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (LabCorp) and Covance Inc. have entered into a definitive agreement under which LabCorp will acquire Covance for cash and LabCorp shares currently valued at $105.12 per Covance share, or an equity value of approximately $6.1 billion. Cravath represented Covance in this transaction. The combination will create the world’s leading healthcare diagnostics company. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2015 and is subject to Covance shareholder approval, regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.

The Cravath team was led by partners Richard Hall and Damien R. Zoubek and included associates Stephanie L. Alexis, Nicholas A. Dorsey and Feihong Xu on M&A matters; partner George E. Zobitz on finance matters; partner Eric W. Hilfers and associates Jonathan J. Katz, Matthew Cantor and Julia L. Onorato on executive compensation and benefits matters; and partner Michael L. Schler and associates Kara L. Mungovan and Ashley N. Elnicki on tax matters. Maria Rita Sobral and Andrew T. Murphy also worked on M&A matters.