Oracle Corporation, one of the world’s largest technology companies, just announced its largest deal ever for the healthcare software giant Cerner Corporation. The deal is valued at $28.3 billion, or $95 per share, a price per share premium of 19.57% based on Cerner’s closing share price on December 16, 2021, the date before media outlets first reported on the deal.
Cerner’s health technologies connect people and information systems at thousands of contracted provider facilities worldwide dedicated to creating smarter and better care for individuals and communities. The company also offers a connected clinical and financial ecosystem to help manage day-to-day revenue functions, as well as a wide range of services to support clinical, financial and operational needs for hospitals and healthcare providers. The company has approximately $800 million in R&D investments and generated $5.5 billion in revenue in 2020.
Cerner will be a huge additional revenue growth engine for Oracle for years to come as Oracle expands Cerner’s business internationally, especially in the healthcare vertical. This deal follows a similar one from Microsoft, which purchased Nuance Communications, Inc. in April for $19.7 billion.
With Oracle’s resources, infrastructure and cloud capabilities, Cerner will accelerate the pace of product and technology development to enable more connected and efficient care. For example, Cerner systems running on the Oracle Gen2 Cloud will be available 24/7 all year round with the goal to deliver zero unplanned downtime in the medical environment, and with Cerner systems running on the Oracle database, only specifically authorized medical professionals can access patient data, increasing patient security and privacy. Cerner will be organized as a dedicated Industry Business Unit within Oracle. The deal is expected to close in 2022.
