Cardinal Health Sells Majority Stake in NaviHealth
Cardinal Health (NYSE: CAH) does a lot of business with private equity firms, but usually as an acquirer, not a seller. In August 2015, Cardinal acquired NaviHealth from Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe for $290 million. In June 2018, it sold a 55% stake in NaviHealth to Clayton, Dublier & Rice for an undisclosed amount. Cardinal’s initial stake was just 71% in 2015, but it added another 17% share in 2017 for $103 million. It will retain an approximately 45% interest in the company, and will have a call right to reacquire the business. The company said it would realize proceeds of $650 million after tax. Back in 2015, NaviHealth offered software and analytics products to help... Read More »
Digital Health Deals Are Blooming
The eHealth sector is on a roll, and the momentum seems to be gaining every month. Deal volume in the first quarter of 2018, at 45 announced transactions, was 50% higher than in the fourth quarter of 2017. With only four deals fewer than the same quarter in 2017, the 8% dip in deal volume hardly counts as a sell-off. Deal values, which aren’t a solid measure of growth in mergers and acquisitions, were still impressive. In Q1:18, digital health transactions totalled approximately $3.9 billion, up 96% compared with the same quarter a year earlier. That puts the eHealth sector ahead of the Pharmaceuticals sector, which has endured at least 18 months of slow M&A activity. Pharma’s dollar... Read More »
DaVita Dumps Its Doc Group for $4.9 Billion
Kidney care specialist DaVita (NYSE: DVA) made good on its statement that it was exploring strategic alternatives for its DaVita Medical Group (DMG). It found a buyer in UnitedHealth Group’s (NYSE: UNH) Optum, which agreed to pay $4.9 billion for DMG, the highest publicly announced price it has paid for a physician group. In January, Optum announced its take-out of Surgical Care Affiliates, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCAI) for $3.2 billion. The company partners with health plans, medical groups and health systems to develop and optimize surgical centers. At the time of the announcement, it operated 205 surgical facilities, including ambulatory surgery centers and surgical hospitals, in partnership with... Read More »