Amazon has agreed to buy the U.S. healthcare provider One Medical for $3.49 billion. Amazon agreed to pay US$18 for each share owned by One Medical.
Under the deal, Carlyle Group, which paid US$350 million for a minority stake in One Medical in 2018, will give up its position as part of Amazon’s takeover.
The deal cements Amazon’s desire to become a force to be reckoned with in the healthcare industry, and the company has taken several recent steps in this direction. This includes the provision of virtual care visits for its Seattle employees in 2019 before offering services to other employers under the Amazon Care brand. Amazon also bought online pharmacy PillPack in 2018.
While the One Medical deal is the company’s first in-and-mortar doctors’ office, recent financial results show that Amazon is taking over a loss-making company with 767,000 members and corporate clients such as Airbnb and Google, which offer its services as a benefit to employees.
According to Citi analyst Daniel Grosslight, the acquisition makes sense because “the “blending of virtual and in-person care is core to both One Medical and Amazon Care’s strategy.”
The sources for this piece include an article in Reuters.
