It’s a frothy, frothy market in most areas of health care, and the digital health space just got frothier. ResMed Inc. (NYSE: RMD), which makes medical equipment to monitor respiratory disorders, announced it paid $750 million for MatrixCare, a portfolio company of OMERS Private Equity.
Right up front, ResMed touted the 25x price/EBITDA multiple, based on MatrixCare’s pro forma net EBITDA of approximately $30 million for calendar year 2018. Pro forma net revenue of $122 million in the same period is approximately 6.2x.
The valuation is higher than even the sector’s biggest deal this year, Verscend Technologies‘ $4.9 billion take-private deal for Cotiviti Holdings (NYSE: COTV), for 17.0x EBITDA.
Is MatrixCare worth it? Its electronic health records focus on the long-term post-acute care space and it boasts more than 2,500 home care, home health and hospice organizations as clients, as well as ACOs, skilled nursing and senior living providers and life plan communities that add up to more than 13,000 facility-based care settings.
It will fit nicely with ResMed’s latest acquisitions, HealthCareFirst (acquired in May 2018) and Brightree (February 2016). Terms of the deal with Pamlico Capital for HealthCareFirst weren’t disclosed. Brightree, then a portfolio company of Battery Ventures, went for $800 million and 18.6x EBITDA.
HealthCareFirst provides cloud-based technologies and services to U.S. home health and hospice providers while Brightree’s cloud-based software targets the post-acute care segments of the home/durable medical equipment and the home health & hospice markets.
Preliminary deal volume in the eHealth sector has already surpassed 2017’s total of 169 deals by 4% and spending is up 47% compared with last year’s total of $9.2 billion.
