The proposed Anthem (ANTM) - Get Report merger with Cigna (CI) - Get Report has been squashed by a federal judge as being anticompetitive.

The $54 billion deal has been in the works since July 2015, and the court ruling by U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington will cost Anthem a $1.85 billion breakup fee unless Anthem can show that Cigna breached the merger agreement. Berman ruled that the deal violated antitrust laws and would reduce the competition among healthcare insurers.

It's the second big healthcare insurance merger to be scuttled following the Aetna Inc.-Humana Inc. merger going south via an antitrust ruling Jan. 23. Healthcare observers have anticipated that the Anthem-Cigna deal might not go the distance after the Aetna-Humana merger went south.

The coupling between Anthem and Cigna was a messy romance from the start as both companies accused the other last year of violating the terms of the deal.

The original deal called for Anthem to pay Cigna shareholders $104.30 in cash and 0.5152 Anthem share for each Cigna share.

With the Anthem-Cigna deal now history, it is likely that Cigna will go shopping for other deals. In a conference call with investors earlier this month, CEO David Cordani said that if the megadeal ran into a road block, his company would look to put its $14 billion cash hoard to work.

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