New York Life Swoops In With Rare $6.3 Billion Cigna Unit Deal

Ted Mathas says he took the market by surprise.

Never before had the chief executive officer of New York Life Insurance Co. struck a deal as big as the one announced Wednesday: a $6.3 billion acquisition of a Cigna Corp. unit that sells life and disability insurance. Large mergers and acquisitions are a rarity for New York Life, which operates as a mutual insurance company owned by its policyholders.

“We are not a big M&A shop, and because this is not something others saw coming we were able to remain in the process,” Mathas said in a phone interview. “We ...