Veritas Capital, a New York City-based private equity firm, plans to buy part of GE’s health IT unit for $1.05 billion. The purchase will include GE’s enterprise financial management, ambulatory care management and workforce management assets.
The companies anticipate the deal will close in the third quarter.
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In a statement, Kieran Murphy, who took the reins as president and CEO of GE Healthcare last year, said:
We’re confident this business will flourish under Veritas Capital, while GE Healthcare will continue to significantly invest in core digital solutions, such as smart diagnostics, connected devices, AI and enterprise imaging, that will drive precision health for our customers. We will continue to lead in data analytics, command centers, advanced visualization and image management tools to create better customer and patient outcomes.
GE Healthcare has, as Murphy mentioned, been taking steps toward precision medicine and AI. It recently teamed up with Roche to create clinical decision support tools. With an initial focus on the oncology and critical care fields, the alliance hopes to give providers more of a complete picture in diagnosing and treating patients. It also initiated an AI collaboration with Partners HealthCare last year.
Additionally, the sale to Veritas Capital comes after GE CEO John Flannery promised to shed over $20 billion of company assets last October, according to Reuters.
As for Veritas, CEO Ramzi Musallam said it sees “a tremendous opportunity” to invest in GE and a $9 billion market. The firm will “invest significantly in people, technology and infrastructure to support the evolving requirements of the company’s diverse customer group,” he noted in a news release.
The private equity firm has demonstrated its interest in healthcare. In 2012, it acquired the Thomson Reuters healthcare business for $1.25 billion. The standalone business, named Truven Health Analytics, was later scooped up by IBM Watson Health for $2.6 billion.
Veritas has also invested in Verscend Technologies, another healthcare analytics company.
Photo: alexsl, Getty Images
