Amazon One Medical Deal: Internet giant enters healthcare market

The Amazon One Medical deal promises great things. With the purchase of the US healthcare provider, Amazon is now venturing into the healthcare market. The company has paid 3.9 billion US dollars for the takeover.

Amazon One Medical Deal: What’s behind it

San Francisco-based U.S. healthcare provider One Medical promises millions of members better health and care at reduced costs, which is a real mouthful, especially in the ailing U.S. healthcare system.

For a membership fee of $199 per year, members enjoy numerous benefits such as a 24-hour consultation including video chat seven days a week, quick and easy same-day or next-day appointments with participating doctors’ offices, and much more.

Those benefits are now moving to Amazon, which has now acquired the 1Life Healthcare, Inc. brand. The Amazon One Medical deal was inked July 21, according to the related press release.

In the process, the Internet giant dug deep into its pockets and, according to its own statement, paid $18 per share, resulting in a total sum of $3.9 billion. However, the deal still needs to be approved by shareholders. Amir Dan Rubin, CEO of One Medical, is expected to remain in a leadership position at the company after the merger.

Amazon’s entry into the healthcare market

For Amazon, the acquisition marks its first steps into the healthcare market, which it accordingly hopes will go a long way. “In our opinion, healthcare is high on the list of experiences that need reinvention,” Neil Lindsay, SVP of Amazon Health Services, is quoted as saying.

He said he sees a lot of potential for improvement, especially when it comes to booking doctor appointments, wait times and the quality of healthcare in the U.S.

“We love inventions that make things as simple as they should be, and we want to be one of the companies that helps dramatically improve the experience within healthcare over the next few years,” Lindsay continued.

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One Medical with gigantic growth

With One Medical, they now have a strong partner for this at their side. The company was founded only in 2007 by Tom Lee. It initially started with just one participating practice in San Francisco and now has 72 locations across the US.

In 2017, Amir Rubin took over as CEO from Lee, and in January 2020, they went public with a stock offering on Nasdaq. According to Annual Report from the first quarter of 2022, they are serving a total of 767,000 members and can show year-over-year growth of 28 percent.

The completion of the Amazon One Medical deal is now in the hands of shareholders and regulators. If shareholders and the courts give the go-ahead, the merger could go through in a timely manner.

Meanwhile, in the U.S., Amazon is fighting in court against the growing number of fake reviews. Here, just a few days ago, it filed a lawsuit against the organizers of more than 10,000 Facebook groups calling for the publication of false reviews of items in the mail-order company’s portfolio.