November 12, 2018
Dear [athenahealth Customer],
I have some exciting and important news to share with you as a valued athenahealth partner.
This morning, with the unanimous approval of our Board of Directors, we announced an agreement under which athenahealth will be acquired by an affiliate of Veritas Capital and Evergreen Coast Capital for $135 per share in cash, in a transaction valued at approximately $5.7 billion. We are confident this planned transaction and new direction will give us the flexibility and focus to drive long-term success and value for our customers.
Following the closing of the transaction, expected to occur in the first quarter of 2019, Veritas and Evergreen plan to combine athenahealth with Virence Health, the GE Healthcare Value-based Care assets that Veritas acquired earlier this year. This combined organization will operate under the athenahealth brand and be headquartered in Watertown, Mass. It will be led by Virence chairman and chief executive officer, Bob Segert, and a leadership team comprised of executives from both companies. I am confident athenahealth will continue to thrive under Bob’s leadership, and that this transaction will bring new opportunities to drive value for our customers.
The combined business is expected to be a leading, privately-held healthcare information technology company with an extensive national provider network and the world-class products and solutions to help our customers thrive in an increasingly complex environment. athenahealth and Virence have complementary portfolios and highly-talented people, a combination that positions us to rapidly expand our network scale, our capabilities, and our reach across the continuum of care.
Excited as we are about embarking on this next chapter of our company’s history, please know that we at athenahealth are operating business as usual. Your contacts remain the same and all contracts are continuing as normal.
We believe athenahealth will continue to thrive under our partnership with Veritas and Virence. By joining forces with a partner that is equally passionate about athenahealth’s mission, we have the opportunity to tap into their additional expertise to help advance our products and our purpose. I’m confident that together we will be in a better position than ever to transform healthcare.
As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to [me/your regular athenahealth representative].
Sincerely,
INSERT NAME