acquisition

Health IT software giant Cerner networks said on Thursday that it is buying Bridge Medical, a subsidiary of AmeriSourceBergen, in a deal valued at approximately $11 million. The acquisition strengthens Cerner's position in the bar-coding market, giving the company another angle in its effort to market its services to hospitals and other healthcare providers. Cerner's stock has fallen slightly over the past few weeks, after reaching a 52-week high late last month.

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The news this week that IDX has lost one of its two contracts for the UK's national health infrastructure upgrade may be bad news for them and good news for Cerner. But it's also a reminder that IT projects of any scale are big and complex, and also that healthcare IT is sufficiently complex that only specialty companies are in the market. Apart from Siemens, whose acquisition of SMS …

Cerner announced the acquisition of French healthcare IT company Axya Systemes yesterday. Many analysts have noted that European health IT markets have remained difficult for outside companies to penetrate. The buy gives Cerner instant credibility in the French market, perhaps enough to win contracts in both France and Germany. Axya provides financial, administrative and clinical IT solutions for hospitals throughout France, Switzerland and Morocco. Terms were not disclosed. The …