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Technology Stocks : Healtheon Corporation (HLTH) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: GJLevine who wrote (78)	5/19/1999 9:17:00 AM
From: James D.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 861

Wednesday May 19, 5:28 am Eastern Time Healtheon, WebMD to merge in $5bln stock deal-WSJ NEW YORK, May 19 (Reuters) - Internet health sites Healtheon (Nasdaq:HLTH - news) and the privately held WebMD Inc. are expected to merge in a stock deal that is worth about $5.5 billion and backed by tech heavyweights such as Intel Corp. (Nasdaq:INTC - news), Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) and Excite (Nasdaq:XCIT - news), the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. The idea behind the merger is to build a dominant Web-based healthcare site that connects doctors and patients, as well as a launch pad for healthcare electronic commerce, the newspaper said. Healtheon's board has given its thumbs up to the merger, and WebMD's board is expected to vote this morning, the newspaper said, quoting sources familiar with the deal. The merger would leave Healtheon and WebMD each owning 50 percent of the newly combined company, the Journal said. The deal is valued at $5.5 billion because that is the market capitalisation of Healtheon, which went public in February, the Journal said. People familiar with the deal say Microsoft, Excite and Intel will invest about $500 million in the new company, the newspaper said. Excite, which is about to be bought by At Home Corp., will invest $20 million to $30 million, while WebMD is expected to buy $60 million in advertising from Excite. Microsoft, already an investor in WebMD, is expected to invest around $200 million dollars, the Journal said. Intel's investment will make a minor contribution, the newspaper said.