Abbey Healthcare Pulls Bid to Buy Competitor : Merger: Costa Mesa firm’s offer was deemed insufficient by Boston’s Lifetime Corp., now on the open market.

COSTA MESA —  Abbey Healthcare Group Inc. on Wednesday withdrew its offer to buy an East Coast competitor.

Abbey’s move came a day after Lifetime Corp., based in Boston, put itself on the open market in what could have become a bidding war among Abbey and other interested buyers. Lifetime maintained that Abbey’s offer of $27.50 a share, or $261 million, was insufficient.

In Wednesday’s trading on the New York Stock Exchange, Lifetime’s stock--which had climbed steadily in value since the proposal was announced--closed unchanged at $25.50 a share. Abbey, traded on the NASDAQ market, closed at $18 a share, up 25 cents.

Timothy M. Aitken, Abbey’s chief executive, could not be reached for comment Wednesday. In a press release, Aitken said it would be unproductive “to continue to seek a dialogue with a board that steadfastly refuses to meet with our representatives.”

Abbey, based in Costa Mesa, rents medical equipment for home use. Lifetime specializes in providing nurses to in-home patients.

Abbey announced plans on March 23 to buy Lifetime. Abbey suggested that the two companies would complement one another, creating a formidable conglomerate at a time when the national focus on health care reform could be a boon to home care providers.

Lifetime reacted less than enthusiastically, saying that it is worth more than Abbey seemed willing to pay.

“We felt the offer was inadequate,” Lifetime Chairman Anthony Reeves said Wednesday. “Nor do we accept the contention that we would benefit from a merger with Abbey.”

Reeves said Abbey never presented his company with any proof of financial backing to cover the purchase: “We have yet to see a shred of evidence that Aitken has a fully financed offer.”

In his press release Wednesday, Aitken described Abbey as “a highly successful company with access to capital.”

Aitken had said earlier that Abbey is a more efficient company than Lifetime and that a merger of the two would result in lowering Lifetime’s administrative costs and boosting earnings. Abbey posted a 1992 profit of $10.4 million on revenue of $248 million. That compared to Lifetime’s earnings of $5.2 million on revenue of $885 million.

Analysts have suggested that Lifetime was so unhappy with Abbey’s aggressive approach that it put itself on the block in an attempt to find another buyer.

“Aitken has been extremely aggressive throughout all of this,” Reeves said, adding that he was “not surprised” Abbey pulled out in the face of prospective competition.