Healtheon Corp confirmed Wednesday that it is involved in negotiations to merge with internet health portal WebMD Inc, as we reported last week. In a brief statement, Healtheon, which operates a proprietary internet service that helps facilitate transactions between doctors, patients and hospitals, admitted to the ongoing discussions but warned there was no guarantee that a deal would be reached.
The Wall Street Journal reported that an announcement on the acquisition is imminent, and placed a value of $5.5bn on the all- stock transaction, as that is the current market value of Healtheon and the deal will be handled as a straight merger, with each company owning half of the new entity. Word has it that Microsoft Corp, Intel Corp and Excite Inc will also be putting about $500m into the deal – as an investment in either privately- held WebMD, or the combined company. Microsoft’s investment is expected to total roughly $200m. á
