Abbott moved to acquire Exact Sciences in a roughly $21 billion cash deal that would fold Cologuard and emerging blood‑based screening assets into Abbott’s diagnostics footprint. Bloomberg‑reported talks and a sudden jump in Exact’s share price signaled imminent announcement and rapid market reaction. Exact Sciences has built a multi‑product oncology testing portfolio — from Cologuard stool tests to Cancerguard and the Oncodetect monitoring assays — that offers Abbott an expanded entry into early cancer detection. Barclays and other analysts flagged margin and growth synergies, and Abbott framed the transaction as a way to scale access to screening. The deal matters for diagnostics and screening strategy: it accelerates consolidation in a fast‑growing early‑cancer market and reshuffles competitive dynamics with integrated players that combine lab testing, centralized diagnostics and distributed kits. Regulators and payers will watch how the deal affects test pricing, lab networks and access to multi‑cancer early detection (MCED) technology.