After nearly 10 months of waffling on a $5.8 billion decision, Abbott Laboratories might have spotted an emergency exit from its contract to buy Alere Inc.

"Alere is no longer the company Abbott agreed to buy 10 months ago," said Scott Stoffel, divisional vice president of external communications at Abbott.

The company cited a series of what it called "damaging business developments" that Alere has suffered since the agreement was signed in late January. Alere lost its billing privileges for a substantial division, has suffered a permanent recall of an important product platform, has been through multiple government subpoenas – including two criminal subpoenas – delayed filing its annual 10k report by five months, and admitted to internal control failures requiring restatement of its 2013-2015 financials.

Stoffel called Alere's numerous negative developments "unprecedented" and "not isolated incidents brought on by chance. He said Abbott has tried to get information to assess these issues for months, and "Alere has blocked every attempt."

Given the ongoing tension between the companies since August, analysts were not exactly surprised Wednesday after Abbott said it filed a complaint in the Delaware Court of Chancery to kill the deal, but the move did offer some clarity regarding the company's stance on Alere. Until now, Abbott executives have remained relatively tight-lipped on Alere, and had not publicly disclosed a desire to back out, although both companies have taken turns trying to sue each other for breach of contract.

In fact, during Abbott's third-quarter earnings call in October, CEO Miles White offered constrained-but-positive comments regarding his outlook on the deal. At the time, White said Abbott was pursuing all necessary regulatory approvals to close the acquisition and that the company was "doing everything we're supposed to do on the contract."

Also, in response to a question from Rick Wise, of Stifel Nicolaus & Co., White said the "noise" that had surfaced about Alere since the agreement had not come from Abbott and he confirmed that Abbott still considered Alere to be an attractive asset.

"Is the long-term, post-merger opportunity and fit there? Yes, it is," White elaborated during the Oct. 19 call. "And I've never wavered on that. And I believe that right now, even this minute." (See Medical Device Daily, Oct. 20, 2016.)

At the time, the companies were engaged in mediation as a result of Waltham, Mass.-based Alere taking its Abbott Park, Ill.-based suitor to court in August, claiming that Abbott was dragging its feet in obtaining regulatory approvals for the transaction. (See Medical Device Daily, Aug. 31, 2016.)

The Abbott-Alere story took another turn last month, this time with Abbott taking Alere to court to obtain documentation and information as promised in the companies' agreement.

According to Abbott, the terms of the merger agreement allow it to terminate the transaction if adverse events materially change Alere's long-term prospects.

"This damage to Alere's business can only be the result of a systemic failure of internal controls, which combined with the lack of transparency, led us to filing this complaint," Stoffel said.

Stifel's Wise said in a research note Wednesday that, given the adverse events that have surfaced, Abbott's attempt to call the deal off is unsurprising, and it does not impact his view on the attractiveness of Abbott's shares (NYSE:ABT), which closed at $38.48, up 0.16 percent ($0.06) and Alere's (NYSE:ALR) stock dropped eight percent Wednesday ($3.19) to close at $36.67.

While Alere's point-of-care portfolio would have been a nice bolt-on acquisition for Abbott, Wise said, the company's diagnostics franchise remains in good shape with seemingly sustainable, organic growth of five percent or more. He estimated that Abbott's products account for 23 percent of world wide sales in the diagnostics space, even without the pending St. Jude Medical Inc. deal, which is still expected to close by the end of the year. That transaction, Wise said, is a much more critical piece to Abbott's long-term growth outlook, "providing needed medical devices portfolio breadth and depth to the under-scaled device franchise."

The analyst said he expects Abbott to announce a trial date in the next couple of weeks regarding Alere and that court filings will likely be unsealed in the next several days. Wise also said resolution to this ongoing litigation is expected to occur on or before the originally anticipated April cut-off date for the deal closing.