Ongoing budget cuts are having a significant impact on government contracting. As federal agencies have fewer funds to work with, federal contractors are having to find business elsewhere. Government contractors are not the only firms experiencing change; Google recently announced a new operating structure, which is sure to have a massive ripple effect on the business and technology realm.

Below is a collection of M&A and government contracting articles featuring some of the latest events in the world of mergers, acquisitions, and federal contracts. This week’s highlights include federal budget cuts, Google’s structure shakeup, and Anthem’s massive bid to acquire Cigna:

Spending Cuts Fuel Government Contractor M&A
Companies that provide the U.S. government with services ranging from air traffic management and data analytics to janitors and trainers for military dolphins are increasingly trying to find buyers for those businesses as cuts in public spending erode profit margins.

Deal Watch: Google Shakeup Has Its Lawyers Feeling Lucky
The birth of a new corporate parent for Google Inc. excited both tech and transactional nerds this week—not to mention buoying investors hoping to learn more about the sources of Google’s revenue. Google turned to longtime adviser Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton for legal counsel on the restructuring, which will split up the company’s many projects—including its core Google search business—under the umbrella of a single newly formed holding company called Alphabet. Alphabet will be publicly traded, with Google shares converting to those of the holding company.

Home Health and Hospice M&A Activity Slows Down in Q2: 2015
The home health and hospice acquisition market appeared to take a breather in the second quarter of 2015. There were just five publicly announced transactions in the second quarter, down from 16 in both the first quarter of this year and the second quarter of 2014. None of the transactions in the second quarter of 2015 came with a price, which indicates that the acquisitions that were announced were most likely small.

Anthem Aims to Buy Cigna for $48 Billion
Anthem is buying rival Cigna for $48 billion in a deal that would create the nation’s largest health insurer by enrollment, covering about 53 million U.S patients. In just three weeks, starting with Aetna’s $35 billion bid for Humana Inc. on July 3, the landscape of U.S. health care has been altered in a buyout frenzy that could transform five massive U.S. health companies into just three, including UnitedHealth Group.

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