Rock Health April 13, 2021
And we’re off to the races again: Microsoft announced plans yesterday to acquire Nuance Communications for $16B. Nuance develops AI speech recognition and medical transcription technology, and currently serves 77% of US hospitals. It’s the biggest digital health acquisition since Teladoc’s $18.5B merger with Livongo last August, according to the Rock Health Digital Health M&A Database. Since that initial starter pistol of the platform wars, in the last month alone we’ve seen Grand Rounds and Doctor on Demand merge to create an integrated virtual healthcare company, insurance provider Bright Health acquire Zipnosis to enter telehealth, and Everlywell expand their at-home lab testing services via acquisitions of PWNHealth and Home Access Health—amongst many others.
While the Microsoft and Nuance deal is...