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GE Healthcare to acquire IDX Systems Corporation

29 September 2005

Chalfont St Giles, UK and  Burlington, VT, USA. GE Healthcare is taking over IDX Systems Corporation, a leading US healthcare information technology provider. The merger of the two companies will create a leading healthcare IT vendor, offering one of the most comprehensive suites of clinical, imaging and administrative information systems.

Pursuant to the transaction, IDX shareholders will receive $44 per share payable in cash in the merger, for a total consideration of approximately $1.2 billion, net of IDX cash and equivalents.

“GE and IDX have a shared vision on how to accelerate the adoption of electronic health records across the globe,” said Joe Hogan, president and CEO of GE Healthcare. “We are extremely excited about joining with IDX and believe that our combined offerings are in line with where healthcare is headed and match the needs of our customers.”

“IDX has grown substantially in recent years and we believe our opportunities for continued growth and expansion will be best realised through the additional scale and resources that a company like GE can provide,” said Jim Crook, Chief Executive Officer of IDX. “As part of GE Healthcare, we believe we will be able to capitalize more fully on the rapidly expanding opportunities in the healthcare IT industry worldwide to fulfill our mission to make a difference in healthcare.”

According to Vishal Wanchoo, President and CEO of GE Healthcare Information Technologies, “IDX’s administrative, clinical and imaging information systems complement GE’s rich clinically-focused Centricity information technology offerings. Together, we will be able to offer a comprehensive set of solutions meeting almost every need a hospital, clinic or doctor’s office has, allowing them to deliver the best quality of healthcare possible to their patients, and to manage their businesses optimally. GE Healthcare will help accelerate IDX’s current solution development and deployment projects, which will benefit IDX customers and provide enhanced opportunities for IDX employees.“

The transaction, which is subject to IDX shareholder and regulatory approvals, and other customary conditions, is expected to close by early 2006. In connection with the transaction, certain shareholders representing approximately 20% of the IDX shares outstanding have agreed, among other things, to vote their shares in favour of the proposed transaction. The Boards of Directors of GE and IDX have approved the transaction.

GE Healthcare is a $15 billion unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE), headquartered in the UK, and employs 43,000 people in 100 countries.

IDX has 2400 employees and has systems installed in over 3400 customer sites. It had revenues for the six-month period ending June 30, 2005 of $289.8 million, up from $232.9 million for the same period in 2004.

Its operations in England are facing problems. IDX was a subcontractor to Fujitsu Services, the local service provider for the English National Programme for IT (NPfIT) in the Southern Region of the programme. However, it faced serious difficulties in adapting its Carecast product to the requirements of the English NHS. On 1 June, 2005 IDX announced that its contract with Fujitsu Services for the Southern Region had been terminated and an anticipated resulting pretax charge for the loss on the contract of between $2.0 million and $4.0 million in the second quarter. It remains a supplier in the London Region, where the local service provider for NPfIT is the BT-led Capital Care Alliance. IDX recently moved development of Carecast for the NHS in London from the US to London, to overcome the problems of its US programmers in understanding the needs of the English NHS.

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