Cerner Corporation has announced it has agreed to buy Siemens health information technology business for $1.3 billion in cash. As part of the agreement, both companies will enter a three year strategic alliance to build on Cerner’s health IT business and Siemens medical devices and imaging, each contributing up to $50 million. The acquisition is expected to create an estimated $4.5 billion in annual revenue. About $650 million will be utilized for R&D and over 18,000 client facilities. As for what will happen to Soarian? Cerner officials stated it will continue to support Siemens’s core platforms, including Siemens’s Soarian platform.
The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of 2015. Siemens cited failure to keep up with its competitors as the key driver of selling off its HIT business. The company has about $1.2 billion in annual sales with about 5,000 client facilities across 40 countries.
