Updated 12/21 with additional deals.
MobiHealthNews has been tracking mergers and acquisitions in the digital health space since 2013, and with the exception of a small blip last year, the number has gone up every year. In 2018, we saw a record-breaking 56 acquisitions and mergers in the space, 13 of which had disclosed price tags totaling $7.6 billion.
This year was notable not only for the number and value of the acquisition but also for the high profile of the players involved. This was the year we saw Amazon purchase PillPack, Best Buy purchase GreatCall, Roche purchase Flatiron Health, and, just recently, Resmed purchase longtime digital health incumbent Propeller Health. Not to mention Dexcom and Medtronic, which each made acquisitions in the back half of the year around their diabetes portfolios.
Read on for our end-of-the-year wrap up of the year's 56 acquisitions, listed in descending order of deal size, with unknown deal sizes listed chronologically at the end.
Johnson & Johnson sells Lifescan to Platinum Equity — In October, Platinum Equity completed its acquisition of Johnson & Johnsons' Chesterbrook, Pennsylvania- and Zug, Switzerland-based LifeScan business, which sells the OneTouch line of connected and non-connected glucometers. Platinum Equity paid $2.1 billion for the business, which reported $1.5 billion in net revenue last year. LifeScan President Valerie Asbury will continue to lead the business, as Platinum Equity plans to make the transition as seamless as possible for customers. More.
Roche acquires Flatiron Health — Pharma giant Roche completed its acquisition of oncology EHR software firm Flatiron Health in the April. The pharma company paid an additional $1.9 billion over the millions it had already invested into the company in 2016, and as a result of the deal now controls all shares of Flatiron Health.
“This is an important step in our personalized healthcare strategy for Roche, as we believe that regulatory-grade real-world evidence is a key ingredient to accelerate the development of, and access to, new cancer treatments,” Roche Pharmaceuticals CEO Daniel O’Day said in the statement. “As a leading technology company in oncology, Flatiron Health is best positioned to provide the technology and data analytics infrastructure needed not only for Roche, but for oncology research and development efforts across the entire industry. A key principle of this is to preserve Flatiron’s autonomy and their ability to continue providing their services to all existing and future partners.” More.
3M acquires M*Modal's tech arm — 3M has agreed to buy the technology arm of M*Modal, the clinical documentation company, for $1 billion. The move enhances 3M's portfolio with the addition of cloud-based artificial intelligence and speech recognition technology. The deal, expected to close in early 2019, will add 750 employees of M*Modal's technology business. The Pittsburgh-based company, which spun off from Carnegie Mellon University will maintain its transcription, scribing and coding services business.
Amazon acquires PillPack — After months of rumors that PillPack was in talks with Walmart for an acquisition, online retail giant Amazon swept in and bought the company for just under a billion dollars (the terms of the deal were undisclosed, but the billion dollar number has been widely reported). With this, the company that made itself famous for “one-click shopping” for consumer goods is positioning to expand its services to include prescription medication — even as its healthcare JV with Berkshire-Hathaway and JP Morgan is starting to get off the ground. More.
Best Buy acquires GreatCall (from GTCR) — San Diego-based GreatCall — an old guard digital health company which started out making smartphones for seniors in 2006 but now offers a suite of connected safety products and services for aging-in-place individuals — was acquired by retail chain Best Buy for $800 million in August. GreatCall was previously acquired in June 2017 by private equity firm GTCR for an undisclosed amount. GTCR in turn sold the company, which has nearly a million paying subscribers, to Minneapolis-based Best Buy. The tech retailer said that the acquisition is part of a larger strategy to invest in technology for the ever-widening over-65 market through 2020. More.
Resmed acquires MatrixCare — Just last month ResMed, maker of connected respiratory devices, announced that it is set to acquire MatrixCare, a Minnesota-based EHR company, for $750 million. MatrixCare’s EHR is targeted towards long-term post acute care services, such as skilled nursing facilities, life plan communities and senior living homes. The deal is expected to help ResMed expand its software-as-a-service offerings, specifically in the long-term care setting. The deal is set to close by the end of the company’s second fiscal quarter in 2019. After the acquisition, MatrixCare is expected to remain a standalone business inside of ResMed’s portfolio. More.
Teladoc acquires Advance Medical — Following up on last year’s Best Doctors acquisition, Teladoc picked up Advance Medical for $352 million. The move is expected to help Teladoc grow its global market into Latin America and Asia Pacific, and enable the company to provide care in 20 languages through its platform. CEO Jason Gorevic told MobiHealthNews that the services will be geared towards multinational companies, many that are based in the US but have roughly a third of their population in other countries, and international health insurance companies that are looking to enhance medical services. More.
Resmed acquires Propeller Health — ResMed, followed up its MatrixCare deal with the purchase of Wisconsin-based digital respiratory health company Propeller Health for $225 million. It is set to finalize the acquisition of Propeller Health by March 2019, which marks the end of its 2019 fiscal year. After the acquisition, Propeller is expected to remain a standalone company within ResMed’s Respiratory Care portfolio. According to a release from the companies, there will be no immediate management changes. More.
Medidata acquires Shyft Analytics — Medidata, a New York City-based company that offers cloud storage and data analytics services for clinical trials, acquired Shyft Analytics, maker of a cloud data analytics platform specifically designed for the pharma and biotech industries, in June. The transaction valued Shyft at $195 million, inclusive of Medidata’s prior 6 percent ownership in the analytics platform, to be paid in cash.
The two companies have come together to build a joint offering they call the “Intelligent Platform for Life Sciences.” Notably, this combined offering marries clinical and commercial information into a more comprehensive data platform that can be used to optimize value from the beginning of drug development to its eventual commercialization. More.
Allscripts acquires HealthGrid — EHR vendor Allscripts purchased patient communication app maker HealthGrid for a potential $110 million — $60 million in cash, with an additional $50 million in earnout payments based on HealthGrid achieving certain revenue targets over the next three years.
“The growing adoption of value-based care, combined with the modest level of usage of patient portals across the industry, has made it critical to take a new approach to patient engagement solution design,” Richard J. Poulton, president of Allscripts, said during the company’s Q1 earnings call announcing the acquisition. “We expect to tightly integrate the HealthGrid capabilities into our FollowMyHealth platform, adding functionality that would enable providers to reach 100 percent of their patient populations by leveraging existing patient contact information rather than requiring patients to sign up for the portal.” More.
Allscripts acquires Practice Fusion — EHR vendor Allscripts acquired Practice Fusion, a smaller EHR vendor that was an early purveyor of mobile-enabled EHRs and a frequent subject of IPO speculation, for $100 million. Some 30,000 ambulatory sites, serving about 5 million patient each month, currently use Practice Fusion EHR, practice management, e-prescribing, lab, and patient portal technology.
"Combined with Practice Fusion, we expect Allscripts to continue to drive innovation in addressing gaps-in-care, improving clinical outcomes and real-world-evidence research," Allscripts President Rick Poulton said in a statement. "Plus, Practice Fusion’s affordable EHR technology supports traditionally hard-to-reach independent physician practices, and its cloud-based infrastructure aligns with Allscripts' forward vision for solution delivery." More.
Logisticare acquires Circulation — App-enabled healthcare transportation company Circulation entered into an agreement to be acquired by Logisticare, the nation’s largest non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) broker, for $44 million, plus $1 million to be paid in three years to each of the cofounders. The price tag on this one is a little bit complicated: the total sale price was $57.5 million, but since Logisticare's parent company Providence has a minority stake in Circulation, $11.5 million is going back to the buyer. Logisticare intends to keep Circulation's entire management team intact, and to deploy Circulation’s technology across its nationwide operations. More.
Dexcom acquires TypeZero Technologies — Dexcom announced the acquisition of TypeZero Technologies in late August, but didn't disclose the price. However, the company's 10Q filing with the SEC mentions a "net cash outflow of $11.3 million related to an acquisition", which is presumably the price paid for TypeZero. TypeZero Technologies has been particularly known for its expertise in insulin delivery advisory algorithms and has worked with competitor Senseonics in the past. Dexcom plans to launch an automated insulin delivery system based on TypeZero's technology in 2019. More.
Persistent Systems acquires Herald Health — Pune, India-based Persistent Systems acquired Herald Health, a two-person health tech startup with successful pilots at Brigham and Women's and Boston Children’s hospitals in Boston. The companies did not disclose terms, but the total price was $5.2 million, according to multiple Indian publications. Herald Health makes a software platform that allows various hospital stakeholders to be automatically notified when data in the EHR and other data systems changes. The company was founded in 2015 and has not raised funding or hired full-time employees beyond the two cofounders. More.
InTouch Health acquires TruClinic — InTouch Health, which markets an enterprise telehealth platform, announced in January that it would be acquiring TruClinic, which specializes in direct-to-consumer online virtual care. The goal of the deal is for InTouch to expand its existing portfolio to deliver a fuller range of virtual care programs to healthcare provider organizations, better enabling continuity of care between physicians and patients, InTouch officials said at the time.
InTouch Health will incorporate TruClinic's software into its offering such that patients can now initiate and receive a consult with their health system physician from their home, further extending InTouch Health's telehealth system across the continuum of care. More.
AccessOne acquires HealthFirst Financial — In January, patient financing company AccessOne announced the acquisition of HealthFirst Financial, a software-enabled service provider of patient financing programs to healthcare organizations, for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition will allow AccessOne to offer healthcare systems tailored health products — including mobile tools — for their care setting, with the goal of lowering bad debt and improving patient satisfaction scores. More.
StayWell acquires Provata — Merck subsidiary StayWell, which offers a preventative health platform for employers, health plans, and health systems, acquired Provata Health for an undisclosed sum in February. Provata Health makes a digital health platform for employee wellness, which includes a chronic disease management program incorporating a connected scale and blood pressure monitor; a lifestyle management platform that incorporates an activity tracker; and a mental health platform that incorporates a VR headset.
"We really see this as significantly advancing our capabilities," StayWell CEO Nicole Latimer told MobiHealthNews at the time. "We knew that we would have to get more advanced in terms of offering our programs through mobile devices. Our acquisition of MedHelp was a step in that direction. But as we think about being able to now offer the capabilities that Provata’s platform offers, that advances us by several years. This is something we no longer have to build ourselves, but we can immediately go to market with a very robust set of mobile capabilities. ... Many of the health plans we’ve been working with have been asking for mobile capabilities, so it’s important to have that now rather than in a few years." More.
Fitbit acquires Twine Health — Early in the year, Fitbit acquired healthcare coaching platform Twine Health for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition will help Fitbit continue to enter the healthcare world and expand its offerings to health plans, health systems, and self-insured employers, creating opportunities to increase subscription-based revenue, according to a statement. Eventually Fitbit plans on extending aspects of Twine's offerings to its 25 million device users, as well as expanding Twine into new disease areas.
“We were already intersecting in the market,” Twine CEO John O. Moore, who now serves as Fitbit’s medical director, told MobiHealthNews. “The one thing we were being asked for by customers that we already had or that we were pursuing was ‘Alright, how do you tie into a more general wellness in our organization?’ and we didn’t have a clean answer to that.” More here and here.
MindBody acquires FitMetrix — San Luis Obispo, California-based wellness platform Mindbody acquired FitMetrix, a performance tracking engagement platform, for an undisclosed sum. The Atlanta-based FitMetrix helps wellness businesses, such as gyms, increase retention by letting the companies engage with users, and track their fitness. The platform allows customers to book classes, track workouts, and get communications from gyms.
FitMetrix and Mindbody originally teamed up in 2015, giving fitness studios and gyms the capability to integrate digital performance tracking into their locations across multiple classes, according to a release. The partnership allowed business to track, rank, and reward clients in real time using customized workout metrics. More.
HIMSS acquires HealthBox — At its global annual conference in March, MobiHealthNews's parent company HIMSS announced the acquisition of HealthBox for its innovation consulting and fund management businesses. Healthbox launched in 2010 as a digital health accelerator, a role it filled for many years as it transitioned to consulting and management.
"Healthcare organizations look at us asking if we can help them think through concepts around digital health or how to bring innovation into their systems," Hal Wolf, HIMSS CEO, told HealthcareITNews at the time. More.
SCI Solutions acquires DatStat — Patient engagement and care coordination company SCI Solutions announced in April its acquisition of DatStat, a company that specializes in digital health tools and patient engagement, for an undisclosed sum. SCI Solutions’ platform is set up for patient scheduling, referral management, and revenue cycle software. Currently SCI Solutions is used by 1,000 hospitals and imaging centers, and by 13,000 physician practices. The company plans to combine this with DatStat’s digital self-service offerings, which include a tool for patients to prepare for their doctor’s visit, a secure messaging system, visit summaries, and care plans. More.
SleepScore Labs acquires Sleep.ai — Contactless sleep tracker maker SleepScore Labs acquired Dutch company Sleep.ai for an undisclosed sum. Sleep.ai, which was founded in 2014, specializes in wearables and apps that let users know if they are snoring. One of its products includes a wearable band can be worn on the user’s arm that vibrates whenever the user rolls on their back and starts to snore. The band also connects to the user’s phone.
"Michiel and his team have made incredible strides improving sleep health for many customers who didn't even know they were suffering from snoring or bruxism," Colin Lawlor, CEO of SleepScore Labs, said in a statement. "We're excited to welcome both to the SleepScore Labs family and to expand our suite of life-changing sleep products.” More.
Livongo acquires Retrofit — Digital chronic disease management company Livongo announced in April that it had acquired Retrofit, a company that specializes in weight-management and disease prevention programs, for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition will give Livongo customers access to Retrofit’s Diabetes Prevention Program. The move will also help Mountain View-based company expand its service, which gives users a ‘nudge’ to remember certain positive behaviors, by integrating more healthcare professionals into the system, including weight-management and nutritional services. More.
American Well acquires Avizia — Boston-based American Well acquired fellow telemedicine company Avizia in late Q2 for an undisclosed sum in April. The deal is expected to help American Well grow its acute care capabilities, Avizia’s specialty. The deal will give American Well access to Avizia’s hospital-based cart lineup and custom software workflows for over 40 clinical specialties, such as telestroke and telebehavioral health services.
“During the last few years we have been watching Avizia closely… and we really believe that the DNA, the culture, and the mission of the organizations are similar,” American Well CEO Dr. Ido Schoenberg told MobiHealthNews. “We also believe we offer this [platform] to a strong joint client base.” More.
InTouch Health acquires Reach Health — On the same day as the announcement of the Avizia acquisition, InTouch Health, which develops enterprise telehealth technology for hospitals and health systems, announced its acquisition of Reach Health, another telemedicine platform. InTouch Health officials said the addition of Reach Health will help it broaden its footprint and enhance its ability to help its customers roll out telehealth programs across the continuum of care, while existing Reach Health customers will benefit from more robust support, reliability, security, and compliance. More.
Eric Carreel re-acquires Nokia Digital Health (Withings) — After months of rumblings about rough seas for Nokia’s digital health business, Eric Carreel, cofounder of French health tech company Withings, bought back Nokia’s digital health division — two years after it was sold to the Finnish tech giant. Carreel plans to relaunch the Withings brand by the end of 2018, according to a statement.
“I am delighted to start working again with the brilliant teams that made the brand such a great success,” Carreel said in a statement. “We have an exciting challenge ahead of us as we continue to push the boundaries of connected health.” More.
Marlin Equity Partners acquires and merges Virgin Pulse and RedBrick Health — Employee wellness and health engagement platforms Virgin Pulse and RedBrick Health announced in May that they would merge under the Virgin Pulse name. The merger comes after Marlin Equity Partners' acquisition of RedBrick Health the previous week and Virgin Pulse that day, both for an undisclosed sum.
The plan is to make both platforms’ capabilities available to their combined customers. The newly merged company will continue to support and innovate on both the Virgin Pulse and RedBrick platforms, according to the companies. Included in these offerings will be Virgin Pulse’s signature feature, the SaaS platform Virgin PulseEngage, which offers personalized, mobile-first experiences that support employees as they improve their health. The offerings will also include RedBrick Health’s digital and live coaching, health assessments, and biometric screening services. More.
WebMD acquires Jobson Healthcare — Internet Brands subsidiary WebMD, which also oversees the Medscape brand of physician-facing mobile and web-based educational content, acquired Jobson Healthcare Information, another healthcare content group, for an undisclosed amount. The major goal of the acquisition is to bolster Medscape's content across the board, but especially content for pharmacists and eye care professionals, including optometrists and ophthalmologists. Jobson will continue to operate out of its existing offices and offer many of its existing publications. More.
Sophia Genetics acquires Biosoftware — Genomics AI company Sophia Genetics acquired Interactive Biosoftware, a maker of Alamut, a clinical decision support software for clinical genomic data interpretation. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
"We are very excited about the acquisition of Interactive Biosoftware," Jurgi Camblong, CEO and cofounder at Sophia Genetics, said in a statement. "Both Sophia AI and Alamut are technologies trusted by the healthcare community and focus on patient-centric innovation. The addition of Alamut marks a big step in our aim to help clinicians better diagnose patients equally. With a community of now over 900 teaching hospitals using our technologies we are in a unique position to connect clinicians and enable them to share knowledge." More.
Wildflower Health acquires Circle — Wildflower Health, a digital health platform that helps patients navigate benefits and connect to resources, announced that it is acquiring Circle Women’s Health platform, a startup from the Providence St. Joseph Health Systems incubator. The merger is expected to grow Wildflower’s provider base as well as provide the team insight into the clinical space. The Circle Women’s Health platform was created by clinicians at PSJH to give users health information and resources. It provides various tools and trackers, and can be integrated into the system’s EHR. More.
Babyscripts acquires iBirth — Babyscripts, a virtual care platform specializing in obstetrics management, announced in June the acquisition of the provider-delivered pregnancy app iBirth in an effort to flesh out its enterprise offering and further drive patient engagement. As part of the deal, the iBirth team will be joining Babyscripts’ team with the app’s CEO and cofounder Judith Nowlin taking on the new role of chief growth officer. No further terms of the acquisition were disclosed.
Babyscripts’ platform offers providers a digital patient management dashboard with data collected through connected devices such as scales, blood pressure cuffs, and a patient mobile app. From these, the platform delivers insights identifying which patients may require a follow up or intervention. Currently the company collects an average of 2.5 and 1.5 weight and blood pressure readings weekly, company President Juan Pablo Segura told MobiHealthNews. By incorporating iBirth’s consumer app, his company expects a 500 to 600 percent increase in their weekly app usage, offering another source of data that can be leveraged to improve patient outcomes. More.
SensorRX acquires Welltodo — Late in Q2 SensorRx announced its intention to acquire Welltodo, maker of the app Migraine Coach, for an undisclosed sum. Migraine Coach uses algorithms to help people track their migraines, and also includes a predictive feature. Charlotte, North Carolina-based SensorRX has its own migraine app called MigrnX, which was launched last year after being tested in the Carolinas Healthcare system. The app helps track a user’s migraine and various symptoms including intensity level, medication usage and effectiveness, and frequency. It also lets users record other health factors like menstrual cycles. The app then offers the user headache patterns and triggers. Migraine Coach’s features will be incorporated into MigrnX. More.
DoctoLib acquires MonDocteur — In July, Doctolib announced that it acquired fellow online medical appointment booking and management company MonDocteur. Both are French startups, offer customers a way to book medical appointments online and were founded in the same year, 2013. The two companies both had a foothold in the French and German marketplace. Combined, the companies include 55,000 available doctors and boast 20 million patient visits per month to their website and mobile app. The acquisition is expected to help the company continue to grow and expand in Germany and France, and to create new services for doctors and patients. The goal is to take a full “leadership position in Europe,” according to the company. More.
CeQur acquires Calibra (from Johnson & Johnson) — As Johnson & Johnson continues to move out of the diabetes business, the company announced in July that it has sold its Calibra product (marketed as OneTouch Via, but never launched) to CeQur, a 10-year-old company working on a similar insulin-delivery wearable. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but CeQur has acquired an exclusive worldwide license for the technology. CeQur is close to deployment on its main product PAQ, a three-day wearable insulin pump that supplies both basal and bolus insulin to people with Type 2 diabetes. The device from Calibra Medical, which Johnson & Johnson acquired in 2012, is a similar product but different in tw
