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20 ridiculous healthcare M&A predictions (ranked from crazy to potentially legit)

The votes are in: 23AndMe is going to shock the world in 2016.

Here are three things we can agree on. Some predictions are good. Some predictions are bad. Most predictions are wrong.

Stephanie Baum, Meghana Keshavan and I spent the last fews days spouting off on the kind of deals we think should happen in healthcare in 2016. Afterward, we polled the full MedCity News reporting staff and incorporated feedback from social media to rank these healthcare M&A predictions from completely loony tunes and to actually having some merit.

The predictions are ranked below from Absolutely Ludicrous (No. 1) to This Actually Makes Sense (No. 20). The rankings came by averaging MedCity News staff members rankings with deductions or additions based on social media reaction.

First, here are the three worst predictions and the three most-likely predictions.

Gold, Silver & Bronze: Most Ludicrous

Gold: Philadelphia 76ers acquires majority stake in Catapult

No one’s happier about this than the team at Catapult, I’m assuming. MedCity News reporters aren’t even big sports fans. Yet they all know the Sixers.

Silver: Verizon buys Tenet Health System

So, no one is buying that one of the world’s largest communications companies would buy a multibillion-dollar health system just to get its products completely into the market?

“I think deals like Verizon acquiring a large health system are particularly ludicrous – I just don’t want to live in a world where big corporations run patient care,” Keshavan said. “Even more so than, say, the pharmaceutical industry already does.” Zing!

Bronze: Boston Heart Diagnostics/Eurofins Scientific buys Theranos

We had two Theranos-acquisition predictions. But the one in which the subsidiary that was acquired for $140 million suddenly consumes the company currently valued at $9 billion just seemed too far of a fall.

Gold, Silver & Bronze: Most Likely to Happen

Gold: 23AndMe buys PatientsLikeMe

If this happens, MedCity News demands compensation equal to 2 percent of the purchase price. It just makes too much sense: a consumer- and data-driven company focused on genetics and therapeutics meets a network of active healthcare consumers.

Silver: Medtronic scoops up Glooko

The thinking here is Medtronic moves quickly after becoming an investor in Glooko earlier this year. That makes sense, particularly since device companies need to give cash-strapped health systems more reasons to buy their products.

Bronze: Verily Acquires Theranos

Forget about the fact Google Ventures and Theranos publicly dissed each other. Consensus is that Verily would be Theranos’ last, best hope to make its dream become a reality.

Remember, you read them all here first.

Below is the full list 1 through 20 (1 being least likely and 20 being most likely). Happy New Year and I hope all your deals in 2016 are easily predicted.

  1. Philadelphia 76ers acquires majority stake in Catapult
  2. Verizon buys Tenet Health System
  3. Boston Heart Diagnostics/Eurofins Scientific buys Theranos
  4. Kaiser Permanente buys Delectable
  5. Travelers Insurance acquires telemedicine company Doctor on Demand
  6. IBM Watson buys athenahealth and Validic
  7. Pfizer acquires Teladoc
  8. Under Armour deepens digital health portfolio with Provant acquisition
  9. Verizon acquires remote monitoring startup Biogaming
  10. Avizia acquires teledermatology company 3Derm
  11. IBM Watson Health acquires Flatiron Health
  12. Uber acquires Pager
  13. Walgreens acquires 23andMe
  14. Apple ResearchKit acquires Next Big Sound
  15. Oscar acquires Clover Health
  16. Kaiser Permanente acquires Kognito
  17. AbbVie acquires BionPharma
  18. Verily acquires Theranos
  19. Medtronic scoops up Glooko
  20. 23AndMe buys PatientsLikeMe

Photo: Getty Images

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