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Amazon recently announced that it is planning on buying ‘One Medical’, as a part of its expansion into the health care industry. The companies have decided for the transaction to be all-cash, and Amazon will pay a total of $3.9 billion for the acquisition. Paying this amount, Amazon has spend around $18 for each share, while also taking in all debts.
Once completed, this buy out will become Amazon’s third biggest acquisition after Whole Foods and Hollywood studio MGM. Amazon hasn’t quite released a statement about their plans with this acquisition, however, considering One Medical’s business model its quite clear that the company plans onto digitize health care.
This acquisition was not Amazon’s first step into the health care industry, the e-commerce giant have its eyes on health care for quite a long time now.
Amazon’s Expansions into Health Care
Continuing its tradition of identifying and solving issues, Amazon quite clearly understands all the issues associated with the health industry and wants to solve them. In conversation with media, the senior vice president of Amazon Health Services ‘Neil Lindsay’ while describing these problems said “Booking an appointment, waiting weeks or even months to be seen, taking time off work, driving to a clinic, finding a parking spot, waiting in the waiting room then the exam room for what is too often a rushed few minutes with a doctor, then making another trip to a pharmacy. We see lots of opportunity to both improve the quality of the experience and give people back valuable time in their days”.
Apart from its ‘One Medical’ acquisition, Amazon also has its very own drug store, and also acquired an online pharmacy named ‘Pill Pack’ back in 2018. It also has an Amazon Care program which focuses on providing health care online through chat and video conferences.
About One Medical
Based in San Francisco, USA, One Medical is a subscription based digital health service that provides online healthcare solutions to its customers. The company currently has over 182 medical offices in around 25 markets spread throughout the US.
The company got its spike soon after the pandemic hit in 2020, and that is also when it went public. Currently it claims to have served more than a 767,000 customers and recorded 28% yearly growth. Now these are great numbers for a business working in the digital health industry, therefore explaining Amazon’s interest in the company.
