A New York-based investment fund seeks to buy athenahealth with a cash offer of $6.4 billion.
Elliott Management, an activist investment firm, wrote a letter to shareholders on Monday stating it wants to acquire the Watertown-based company on an “expedited basis.”
“We believe that our proposal represents the best path forward for athenahealth, its shareholders, its employees and its broader mission,” Elliott said in the letter, according to a report by the Boston Business Journal.
The letter also said athenahealth’s management has “revealed an unwillingness” to pursue alternative strategies for realizing value,” according to a CNBC story. The letter pointed specifically to the areas of: sales execution, service delivery, product focus, forecasting, executive turnover, capital allocation management discipline, and corporate governance, the Boston Business Journal reported.
Elliott Management, which was founded by Paul Singer, purchased more than 9 percent of athena’s stock last year, and now owns 8.9 percent. The fund has sought to make changes at other companies and areas, including pressuring Samsung to restructure and even seized an Argentinian naval ships while pursuing the South American nation’s debt, according to a BBC article.
Athenahealth officials confirmed they received an unsolicited bid for the company and will “carefully review” it, CNBC reports.
The health-care technology company owns the Arsenal on the Charles complex, having bought the former-Watertown Arsenal from Harvard University in 2013.
The company is in the midst of a major building project at the Arsenal, remodeling some buildings and adding others, including the large parking structure on the west end of the property. Athenahealth has also partnered with the Town and the state’s Department of Conservation and Recreation in a program called I-Cubed to get funding to do $25 million in infrastructure projects around the Arsenal on the Charles in a deal that is predicated on adding 1,000 jobs on the site.
Last year, the company laid off hundreds of workers, about 9 percent of its workforce.
Heard the news this morning. Looks like it could be a done deal. Elliot will dismantle athenahealth since the parts are worth more than the whole. Watertown is going to be left holding the bag on the whole Arsenal construction project.