Business
Health care mergers increase
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Jan. 15, 2007
Mergers and acquisitions involving health care companies worldwide are set to reach a six-year high. At least $237.6 billion in deals were announced in 2006, the Financial Times newspaper reported. The numbers come from Dealogic, a company that tracks worldwide financial trends.
In 2005, the volume of deals was at $193.7 billion, according to the data Dealogic supplied to the Financial Times. The deal flow has more than doubled since 2003, when $112.5 billion in health care deals was announced.
The boom in leveraged buyouts is behind much of the activity, according to Dealogic. The buyout for hospital chain HCA alone was worth $33 billion.
Absent from the activity, for the most part, were the nation's largest health plans, which spent 2006 absorbing the spree of acquisitions they made the previous few years.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2007/01/15/bibf0115.htm.