Oracle confirms $28bn Cerner deal

Oracle has confirmed a $ 28.3bn deal to buy healthcare tech firm Cerner.

Following initial reports suggesting an acquisition was imminent, both companies have now confirmed the news, which at $ 95 a share is Oracle's biggest ever deal.

Cerner, which specializes in digitalizing medical records, was founded in 1979 and headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri. The company currently has 26,400 employees and annual revenue of $ 5.5 billion, according to data from Datanyze.

Cerner deal

“Working together, Cerner and Oracle have the capacity to transform healthcare delivery by providing medical professionals with better information—enabling them to make better treatment decisions resulting in better patient outcomes,” said Larry Ellison, Chairman and Chief Technology Officer, Oracle. 

“With this acquisition, Oracle's corporate mission expands to assume the responsibility to provide our overworked medical professionals with a new generation of easier-to-use digital tools that enable access to information via a hands-free voice interface to secure cloud applications. This new generation of medical information systems promises to lower the administrative workload burdening our medical professionals, improve patient privacy and outcomes, and lower overall healthcare costs.”

The deal should solidify Oracle’s already strong presence in the healthcare industry, as it currently offers software tech for health insurers, healthcare providers, and public health systems. 

Buying Cerner could also heat up the “arms race” with Microsoft, who is also showing increasing interest in digital healthcare tools. Back in April 2021, the Redmond software giants acquired AI company Nuance Communications for $ 16 billion.

“Cerner has been a leader in helping digitize medical care and now it's time to realize the real promise of that work with the care delivery tools that get information to the right caregivers at the right time,” said David Feinberg, President and Chief Executive Officer, Cerner. 

“Joining Oracle as a dedicated Industry Business Unit provides an unprecedented opportunity to accelerate our work modernizing electronic health records (EHR), improving the caregiver experience, and enabling more connected, high-quality and efficient patient care.”

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Oracle is lining up its biggest acquisition yet

Oracle is currently negotiating to buy healthcare tech firm Cerner in a deal that could be worth approximately $ 30bn, reports have claimed.

Citing people familiar with the matter, the Wall Street Journal said the potential deal will be Oracle’s biggest acquisition to date, almost three times bigger than the $ 10 billion acquisition of PeopleSoft that took place back in 2005. 

Cerner, which specializes in digitalizing medical records, has a market value of around $ 23bn, but adding the usual takeover premiums could send the price up even higher.

Arms race heating up

Founded in 1979 and headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri, Cerner currently has 26,400 employees and annual revenue of $ 5.5 billion, according to data from Datanyze.

Oracle was founded in 1977 by billionaire Larry Ellison, who still owns almost half of the company’s shares (42%). Ellison stepped down as company CEO in 2014, handing off the baton to Ms. Catz and the late Mark Hurd, but is still the company’s CTO and chairman.

The deal would only solidify Oracle’s already strong presence in the healthcare industry, as it currently offers software tech for health insurers, healthcare providers, and public health systems. 

Buying Cerner would heat up the “arms race” with Microsoft, who is also showing increasing interest in digital healthcare tools. Back in April 2021, the Redmond software giants acquired AI company Nuance Communications for $ 16 billion.

Wall Street Journal also believes buying Cerner would help Oracle pivot more towards the cloud, a move that’s been getting plenty of praise from its investors and stakeholders.

Via: Wall Street Journal

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