Based in Watertown, Massachusetts, Athenahealth is not the most likely candidate to acquire a California-based mobile company, but that’s just what the health IT firm has done. Epocrates is run out of San Mateo, California, and creates mobile apps with a medical focus.
Now that Athenahealth has acquired the company for $293 million--in cash--the medical IT firm hopes to expand its reach among doctors, its primary customer base, using Epocrates’ innovative mobile applications.
Epocrates’ purchase price represents a 22 percent premium over the closing price of Epocrates’ stock on Friday, January 4th.
This means that at the end of the second quarter of 2013, the deal should officially be done (aside from any regulatory requirements still underway at that point).
Athenahealth’s CEO and chairman, Jonathan Bush commented on the deal, saying, “I have been an admirer of Epocrates since it first emerged and have watched the company grow consistently, one app download at a time, as it has cemented itself into the consciousness of America’s physicians.”
Bush added, “No other company has been able to replicate the brand awareness, familiarity, and trust that Epocrates has across the clinical mobile user base.”
This recent acquisition is the newest, but not the only acquisition Athenahealth has made in recent years. AthenaCoordinator is Athenahealth’s care coordination service, formerly known as Proxsys LLC. Athenahealth bought the Burlington, Alabama cloud-based care coordination company in 2011, for $28 million.
With this acquisition, Athenahealth hopes to do the same: better cement themselves into the consciousness of America’s physicians.
“Together, we’re excited by the opportunity to redefine the mobile toolset for care givers,” said Bush.
Epocrates’ app for clinical content and tools is reportedly used by 330,000 physicians nationwide, and over one million worldwide, so the benefits the company can bring to Athenahealth should greatly help the company to access more customers.
“Our biggest obstacle is that 70 percent of doctors don’t even know we exist,” said Bush. Epocrates is likely to change that.
Athenahealth is not the only company benefitting from the deal, however--at least as Bush sees it.
“We are confident that we can provide Epocrates with the stewardship and resources it needs to grow and develop within health care,” said Bush. From all sides, it looks as if this acquisition will be a positive move. As Bush said, “Epocrates’ capabilities are going to mesh exceptionally well with Athenahealth’s cloud-based physician and patient services.”
Edited by
Brooke Neuman
