Health Care Deal News: Spotlight on E-Health

Epocrates Inc. (NASDAQ: EPOC), owner of the popular iPhone app voted “Most Important Mobile Health-Care App” last December by readers of ModernHealthcare.com, was acquired by athenahealth, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATHN) on January 7 for $293 million cash, equivalent to $11.25 per share, or a 22% premium. Athenahealth provides cloud-based practice management, electronic health records and care coordination services to medical practices, but trails larger rivals in name recognition. By purchasing Epocrates, a mobile iPhone app that lets physcians call up summaries on drugs, including side effects and interaction, athenahealth hopes to gain name recognition—and market share. As athenahealth CEO Jonathan Bush told Bloomberg, “Epocrates is to health care IT what Angry Birds is to games.” The company plans to integrate the app with its own electronic records system, athenaClinicals, so doctors could look up drug information and then prescribe it. The software could automatically call the pharmacy, issue the insurance claim and handle other tasks. Further expansions, such as allowing a doctor to schedule an MRI and then see the results, are being considered. Piper Jaffray & Co. acted as exclusive financial advisor to Epocrates. Goodwin Procter LLP served as athenahealth’s legal counsel and Cooley LLP served as counsel to Epocrates……Want to read more? Click here for a free trial to The Health Care M&A Information Source and download the current issue today