Healtheon Ends Planned $20 Mln Investment in IDX
Atlanta, June 8 (Bloomberg) -- Healtheon/WebMD Corp., the biggest Internet company linking doctors, patients and insurers, canceled its planned $20 million investment in IDX Systems Corp., a provider of software to doctors.
The investment would have given Healtheon a 3 percent stake in the IDX unit ChannelHealth Inc., an Internet site for doctors. Healtheon also would have become the exclusive provider of electronic transactions to IDX's 118,000 physicians.
A new agreement calls for Healtheon to offer its services to IDX's doctors, though not as the sole provider.
``I don't think they want to give the appearance they control the doctor's desktop,'' said James Kumpel, a Raymond James Financial Corp. analyst with a ``strong buy'' rating on Healtheon. ``It's a preemptive move.''
The move could quicken federal regulators' approval of Healtheon's acquisition of CareInsite Inc. and its parent, Medical Manager Inc., another maker of software for doctors.
``We still expect the Department of Justice review to take some time,'' said Lew Belote, Healtheon's vice president of finance. ``Hopefully, this will help because it's one less exclusive arrangement.''
Regulatory approval is not required in the revised agreement with IDX Systems.
Healtheon, based in Atlanta, agreed in February to buy Medical Manager and CareInsite for $5.4 billion in stock. Healtheon is adding software companies to increase its links to medical offices.
Healtheon fell 3/4 to 18 3/16 in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. IDX Systems, based in South Burlington, Vermont, was unchanged at 15 13/16. The announcement was made after U.S. markets closed.
Jun/08/2000 19:00 ET |
