A sign is placed in front of one medical office on July 21, 2022 in San Rafael, California.
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Amazon Wednesday He said It closed a $3.9 billion deal for primary care provider One Medical.
Last July, Amazon agreed to acquire One Medical to deepen its presence in healthcare, and to “significantly improve” the experience of getting Medicare. Amazon has long had ambitions to expand into healthcare, buying online pharmacy PillPack in 2018 for $750 million, then launching its own virtual clinic for chronic conditions, and prescription privileges for Prime members.
The deal gives Amazon access to more than 200 brick-and-mortar medical offices in 26 markets, and about 815,000 members.
The purchase was the first major deal announced since CEO Andy Jassy took over the helm of the organization from Jeff Bezos in July 2021, and Jassy has indicated that he sees health care as a key area for expansion. Health care is ripe for disruption, he said in a statement, citing the long appointment times and complexities of primary care.
“Customers want and deserve the best, and that’s what One Medical has been working on and creating for over a decade,” Jassy said in a statement. “Together, we believe we can make the healthcare experience easier, faster, more personal, and more convenient for everyone.”
Amazon said it will cut One Medical membership for US users to $144 from $199 for the first year, regardless of whether they subscribe to Prime.
The closure comes after an expiration date for the Federal Trade Commission to challenge the deal. The acquisition has been under in-depth review at the Federal Trade Commission over the past several months. Last September, the agency sent Amazon Won Medical a so-called “second request” to get more information about the deal, according to him. Securities deposits.
While Amazon has waited the period required to close the deal, the FTC can still decide to file a case to cancel the merger at a later time — a right it reserves in any deal it reviews. The FTC chaired by Lena Khan has sent letters to some parties seeking a merger saying that while they cannot delay the merger any longer because the deadline has passed, they are still investigating and can take legal action at a later date. However, it is often more difficult to solve a merger in practice once two companies have formally merged.
“The FTC’s investigation of Amazon’s acquisition of One Medical” is ongoing, said FTC spokesperson Douglas Farrar. “The committee will continue to consider potential competition harms resulting from this merger as well as potential harms to consumers that may result from Amazon’s control and use of sensitive consumer health information maintained by One Medical.”
An agency official confirmed that the FTC sent a letter to the companies warning them that the parties were closing the deal at their own risk, and that they still had specific concerns about the deal.
Amazon’s $8.5 billion deal for movie studio MGM also cleared regulatory hurdles last March. The company still faces an ongoing FTC investigation into its Prime program, as well as its online marketplace. The agency is also reviewing the $1.65 billion acquisition of Amazon iRobotannounced last year.
Khan is one of Amazon’s biggest critics. She made her first big exposure in antitrust circles with her 2017 Yale Law Journal article, “The Amazon Antitrust ParadoxThe article, which she wrote while still a law student, argued that the popular antitrust framework focused on consumer welfare, was not appropriate for evaluating digital giants such as Amazon.
CNBC channel Lauren Fenner And Mary Katherine Wellons Contribute to this report.