Healtheon stock falls on WebMD confusion
LOS ANGELES, June 28 (Reuters) - Internet portal Healtheon Corp (Nasdaq:HLTH - news). saw its share price drop nearly 10 percent on Monday amid investor confusion over Microsoft's investment in WebMD, which Healtheon is acquiring.
Healtheon's stock closed down $7.94 at $72.38 after dropping as low as $67.50 in Nasdaq trading on Monday.
The sell-off was spurred by a report in Barron's that suggested Microsoft was seeking to reduce its equity stake in the combined company by divesting some of its shares.
But a spokesman for Microsoft said the company remained fully committed to the Healtheon-WebMD deal and looked forward to the completion of the planned merger.
Healtheon said last month it would acquire online medical resource WebMD in a stock deal then valued at $7.9 million.
Under terms of the deal, shareholders of WebMD will get 1.815 Healtheon shares for each WebMD share.
Before the merger announcement, Microsoft had tendered to purchase a specified number of shares from existing WebMD shareholders and the tender continued past the date of the merger announcement.
Microsoft is also investing $250 million cash into WebMD.
According to Healtheon documents filed at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Microsoft will own 17.2 percent of the common stock in the merged company.
Microsoft said in a statement that it had assigned rights ''to an immaterial portion of those shares to investors that Microsoft regards as strategic, long-term holders.''
The company said the rights were assigned ''at a significant premium to Microsoft's tender offer price,'' which, according to the Healtheon filing, was $54.17.
Because WebMD is a privately held company, there are substantial restrictions on the sale, exchange, or transfer of its shares, Microsoft noted.
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