Quintiles and WebMD talked about merger?

Quintiles Transnational Corp, the leading pharmaceutical contractresearch organization, held merger talks with Internet health care firm WebMD Corp in January, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. The paper says that documents filed in a court dispute between the two firms over a data-sharing agreement cite an affadavit from Dennis Gillings, Quintiles' chief executive, that "potential business combinations" were discussed with his counterpart at WebMD, Martin Wygod.

Mr Gillings' affidavit reportedly says that Mr Wygod "has suggested that Quintiles should acquire WebMD," and the former firm has not rejected the most-recent overtures, although the talks have been "extremely preliminary," according to the WSJ. The companies have not commented on the reports.