Digital Health Data Draws Big Money

Mergers and acquisitions in the eHealth sector are surging, and data is driving some of the biggest deals in health care. Deal volume in the digital health space went from 68 transactions in 2013 to 157 announced in 2016, a 131% increase. Transaction levels remained in the double-digits from 2000 until 2012, when 103 digital deals were recorded. Since 2014, when annual deal volume reached triple-digits, M&A has grown almost exponentially. Dollar volume shot up as well, growing from annual totals in the hundreds of millions early in the century to seven-figure totals beginning in 2005. The $11.5 billion total logged in 2009 was something of a milestone. The $20.2 billion total posted in... Read More »

IBM Watson Health Buys Truven Health Analytics

Big Healthcare Data just got bigger. IBM (NYSE: IBM) has spent some $4 billion in the past 12 months to build out its Watson Health division. The latest and largest deal is for Truven Health Analytics, for $2.6 billion. Truven Health provides cloud-based healthcare data, analytics and insights to more than 8,500 clients, including federal and state government agencies, health plans, hospitals, clinicians and life sciences companies. Veritas Capital is making a good $1.35 billion on the sale of Truven, which it acquired in 2012 for $1.25 billion, from Thomson Reuters Corp. (NYSE: TRI). Truven Health’s extensive data set will be integrated into IBM’s Watson Health Cloud, creating... Read More »