Amazon To Buy One Medical For Nearly $4 Billion

Amazon's desire to be a major participant in the healthcare industry advances significantly on Friday.

Amazon stated that it will purchase One Medical for $18 per share in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $3.9 billion.

One Medical is a primary care provider that utilizes in-person, digital, and virtual interactions in its services. The company went public in 2020.

The e-commerce and cloud services behemoth has been independently creating an online pharmacy and constructing an on-demand healthcare services platform, among other initiatives.

However, the rise of services such as One Medical's is conceptually aligned with a broader vision of digital services - replacing those same services given by more traditional and frequently analog means - as demonstrated by Amazon in other verticals.

Neil Lindsay, SVP of Amazon Health Services, remarked in a statement, "We believe health care is at the top of the list of experiences in need of reinvention... we see many opportunities to both improve the quality of the experience and give people back valuable time in their days."

One Medical operates on both a direct-to-consumer approach and by selling services through employers' employee health plans. Currently, more than 8,000 enterprises serve as B2B2C customers.

The company, which received funding from Google and others during its early period, has experienced its share of ups and downs. We wrote in 2021 about a data breach at the organization that revealed the email addresses of hundreds of consumers.

Amazon has been making inroads and laying out its plans in the healthcare industry for several years. It has acquired online pharmacy providers, such as PillPack, and produced products based on these acquisitions.

Amazon has also viewed healthcare as an enterprise potential, for instance by developing Alexa integrations in healthcare contexts.

The parent company of One Medical, 1Life Healthcare Inc., started more than 60 percent higher on Thursday on the announcement of the deal.

The completion of the deal is contingent on shareholder and regulatory approval.

The report resulted in an 8% decline in Teladoc Health Inc's stock price during morning trade. The shares of CVS Health and Walgreens Boots Alliance sank more than 2 percent.

In an agreement announced last year, Amazon Care acquired Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc as a major client.

Meanwhile, analysts say that Amazon's minimal position in the healthcare industry should mitigate antitrust concerns, but risks remain.