Acquisitions & Agreements
Acquisitions & Agreements
• CyBear (Boca Raton, FL) an Internet-based healthcare communications company, said it will team with Sun Microsystems (Palo Alto, CA) to develop Internet applications for the healthcare marketplace. CyBear is focused on applications which establish networks and improve information sharing across platforms. CyBear Chairman John Klein said that his company will use Sun’s "tools and technologies to revolutionize communication in a diverse and disconnected healthcare community. Sun provides hardware, software and services for Intranets and the Internet.
• Data General (Westboro, MA) has signed an agreement with Tremont Medical to distribute Tremont’s Point-of-Care Terminal (PCT) family of wireless workstations, thereby adding to Data General’s healthcare solutions portfolio. The PCT workstations are PCs with a flat, 17- or 12-inch screen that are integrated into a mobile medical cart and allow nurses to electronically update medical charts while taking vital signs and talking to patients about symptoms and care. The product line includes three configurations that address different end-user needs: SC-1000, a fully integrated wireless workstation, including PC, mobile cart and battery; the LT-1000, which converts a clinician’s laptop into a mobile workstation; and the MC-1000, a self-contained workstation that is attached to a traditional medical cart. Data General has also developed a partnership with Microsoft to develop a terabyte medical data repository to be called TeraCLIN. The ultimate capacity is expected to be about 1.7 terabytes of text, image and voice data files. The prototype is being run on an 8 processor DG server using Microsoft new SQL version 7.0.
• IBM has signed a joint marketing and service agreement to combine its Health Data Network applications with the Internet-based services of Healtheon (Santa Clara, California). The agreement will give customers access to complementary solutions, combing the best products from each company in healthcare online applications and services. Applications will include Maser Person Index, clinical data repositories, global registration, health plan coverage and eligibility, referrals, claims submissions, lab orders and results, consumer enrollment and benefits administration.
• PPD (Wilmington, NC) said it has signed a non-binding letter of intent to acquire ATP (Chapel Hill, NC), a health information services firm specializing in customized inbound and outbound telecommunications programs. The programs target both consumers and healthcare providers and serve to expand PPD’s marketing services for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. PPD will issue unregistered stock to ATP shareholders in return for their ATP stock, the transaction being accounted for as a pooling of interests. The operations of ATP will be absorbed into PPD and based in Research Triangle Park, NC.
• QuadraMed (Richmond, CA) has acquired Integrated Medical Networks (IMN; Irving, TX), and its software that tracks patient clinical and financial data in a deal valued at $30 million. IMN’s applications are web-enabled, and client/server configured.
• Rite Aid (Camp Hill, PA) has completed purchase of PCS Health Systems (Scottsdale, AZ) from Eli Lilly. PCS is a health solutions company that manages nearly 300 million prescriptions each year and provides programs and services designed to reduce healthcare costs. Terms of the purchase were not disclosed.
• Ultrafit Centers (San Antonio, TX), a preventive medicine centers franchisee, has agreed to acquire all shares of FON Digital Network (Orlando, FL), a company providing automated network facilities for wholesale and retail telecommunication services both in the U.S. and internationally. Ultrafit CEO Dell Porth said the acquisitions "broaden the scope of our core business. I feel that although the current period continues solid growth for Ultrafit’s core business, the excitement for Ultrafit’s shareholders in 1999-2000 will be in the telecommunications area."
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