Fairview Health Services and Sanford Health announced on Thursday the planned merger between the two companies has been dropped.

A Sanford Health spokesperson told the Minnesota Daily that “Sanford Health initiated the decision to discontinue the merger process.” MPR News reported Sanford’s board of trustees made the decision to stop the merger during a Thursday meeting and informed Fairview CEO James Hereford later in the day.

“Without support for this transaction from certain Minnesota stakeholders, we have determined it is in the best interest of Fairview Health Services to discontinue the merger process,” Hereford said in a statement issued Thursday.

The proposed merger between the two health systems was announced in November but faced pushback from Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison.

Sanford CEO and President Bill Gassen said in his statement the benefits of combining with Fairview had compelled Sanford “to exhaust all potential pathways to completing our proposed merger.”