When someone says "healthcare M&A", the first thing that comes to mind might be the current round of pharma and biotech deals, which Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE)
kicked off in January with its $68 billion acquisition of Wyeth (NYSE:WYE).
But the sector is so huge -- and for many, still so attractive -- that lots of transactions have a healthcare angle, including, it seems, some now being contemplated by Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL), which says it's especially interested in healthcare-related targets as it makes plans to
do more deals.
Dell chief executive Michael Dell told Bloomberg News, "When you look at the healthcare space, it's the one sector of the economy that has the least amount of IT, and we see it as very promising for growth." He also said Dell is rapidly developing merger expertise and will be "reasonably active."
To that end, Dell hired David Johnson as senior vice president for corporate strategy. (IBM Corp. [NYSE:IBM] was
miffed about its top dealmaker defecting to a rival.) Johnson is no doubt hard at work thinking about the company's growth strategy, although he didn't take part in Dell's recent $3.9 billion acquisition of Perot Systems Corp. (NYSE:PER), which Dell had been courting for two years. The IT services company has a strong presence in healthcare.
Interestingly, Perot is acquiring as it is being acquired,
buying the Chinese operations of bankrupt BearingPoint Inc. In July, Perot
won a contract with the Chinese government to provide IT consulting services for healthcare organizations and public health initiatives throughout the Hunan Province.
A week after Dell announced the Perot deal, Xerox Corp. (NYSE:XRX)
said it's buying document and BPO company Affiliated Computer Services Inc. (NYSE:ACS) for $6.4 billion. Discussing the rationale for the deal in a video interview with CNBC, Xerox CEO Ursula Burns said ACS is probably the world's leader in healthcare business processing. "They have the largest position in Medicaid processing," she said. -
Baz HiralalGo to the story on Dell M&AAlso see:
Onyx Pharma acquisition drives trendEmerson Electric fuels data center deal trend
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