The Top 10 Healthcare Deals of 2018. So Far
It’s been a busy year for healthcare deal makers, and it’s not over yet. With slightly more than 1,700 deals announced as we went to press, this year’s deal volume has already surpassed 2017’s 1,607 total. Dollar volume is on par with last year’s total of $316.3 billion. At the moment, 2018’s spend stands at $316.9 billion. We will likely see a few more big deals in the remaining weeks of December, just as in December 2017. That was the month that CVS Health (NYSE: CVS) and Aetna (NYSE: AET) announced their $77 billion tie-up, Catholic Health Initiatives and Dignity Health made their mega-merger public, Optum (NYSE: UNH) announced its $4.9 billion acquisition of DaVita Medical Group (NYSE:... Read More »
Buyers Flock to Pharmaceuticals, Again
Pharmaceutical deal activity made a comeback in the second quarter of 2018, with 41 transactions reported, and counting. That is the highest quarterly haul in two years, but what happened to dealmaking in the intervening period? Deal volume dropped off soon after the 2016 presidential election, as companies and investors waited for President Trump’s promised tax overhaul. That legislation came in December 2017, and activity in this sector has picked up accordingly. In fact, the second quarter’s deal volume was 64% greater than that of the first quarter, and 156% better than what was reported in the second quarter of 2017, the sector’s nadir. One of those transactions was a record-breaking... Read More »
Q2:18 Health Care Deal Volume and Value Explode
What a quarter it was. Even with preliminary data, the numbers of deals and dollars spent in the second quarter of 2018 are impressive. The quarter began with a bang in April (176 deals), settled in May (136 deals) and slowed in June (122 deals). That still adds up to 432 transactions reported in the second quarter, up 1% compared with the first quarter, and 13% better than the same quarter in 2017. The Services sectors accounted for 59% of the deal volume in Q1:18, five percentage points lower than in the previous quarter, and three percentage points lower than Q2:17. The Long-Term Care sector, which turned in 47 deals in April alone, posted gains of 28% compared with Q1:18 and 33%... Read More »