Veritas Capital and Elliott Management are purchasing athenahealth for around $5.7 billion.
Here are five things to know:
1. Evergreen Coast Capital is a minority investor in the combination of Virence, a Veritas-backed organization, and athenahealth, a network-enabled services provider for hospitals and ASCs. Veritas and Evergreen will purchase the company for around $5.7 billion, or $135 per share, in cash.
2. Shareholders will receive $135 in cash per share, a 12 percent premium over athenahealth's closing price Nov. 9, prior to the transaction's announcement. On May 17, 2017, Elliott Management acquired 9 percent interest in the company, and the current price comes at a 27 percent premium of athenahealth's stock price at that time.
3. Virence Health and athenahealth are expected to combine. Veritas acquired Virence, GE Healthcare's value-based care assets, earlier this year and the combination is expected to grow Veritas' healthcare IT business.
4. The combined company will operate under the athenahealth brand when the transaction closes and have headquarters in Watertown, Mass. Virence Chairman and CEO Bob Segert will lead the combined company alongside an executive leadership team composed of leaders from both companies.
"Operating as a private company with Veritas's ownership and support will provide athenahealth with increased flexibility to achieve our purpose of unleashing our collective potential to transform healthcare," said athenahealth Executive Chairman Jeff Immelt.
5. The companies expect to close the transaction during the first quarter of 2019. The board of directors for athenahealth approved the merger and plans to recommend shareholders vote to do the same.
6. The financial advisors for athenahealth were Lazard and Centerview Partners while Weil, Gotshal & Manges were legal counsel. Veritas reported Schulte, Roth & Zabel were acting legal counsel for the company during the transaction, and Deutsche Bank and RBC Capital Markets were acting financial advisors to Evergreen. Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher were acting legal advisors to Evergreen, which maintains minority ownership.