Harris Corp Snags Healthcare Tech Asset
The IT giant expands its footprint in the healthcare services tech space with Patriot Technologies.
November 16, 2009
Harris Corp., the listed, Florida-based communications and information technology company, bought privately-held Patriot Technologies, a provider to healthcare information technology services for government clients.
Patriot manages healthcare IT, imaging and enterprise software solutions provided to the Department of Veterans Affairs, as well as to the Department of Defense, Health and Human Services and the Federal health Architecture.
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed; a company spokesman declined to identify them but noted the deal, as Harris’ smaller deals this year, was all cash.
The Harris spokesman said the company continues to expand its DC presence and that the Patriot buy was “a continuation of that trajectory.”
Harris Corp. established its healthcare business two years ago. The company has nearly all of its $750 million revolver available and has more than $230 million in cash to back it up—Harris, clearly, can be buying further in to the healthcare services space. A recent Ladenburg Thalmann report labeled its stock a “buy.”
Patriot is headquartered in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, but has operations in Maryland outside Washington DC.
Jim Traficant, vice president of Harris’ healthcare solutions unit, will assume control of Patriot when the transaction is completed.
The strategic deal is a bit of an anomaly from the typical M&A scene of 2009, in which private equity has been an aggressive pursuer of healthcare companies.
PE firms have pursued healthcare deals as 2009’s M&A scene has been characterized by an ongoing interest in the sector, despite pessimists’ concerns about what the coming Obama administration’s regulatory changes to the industry will do to buyer’s interest. In September, Cortec Group bought a majority stake in 180 Medical Inc. In addition, Miguel Fernandez, chairman of Florida-based private equity firm MBF Healthcare Partners, LP, committed $100 million in capital to invest in a new managed care healthcare platform, Simply Healthcare Plans, also in September.
For more information on related topics, visit the following:
