By
Tolu Ajiboye
November 29th, 2022
Best Buy is expanding its frontiers in the healthcare sector by purchasing Current Health that will be added to its current health subsidiaries.
Best Buy announced on Tuesday that it will acquire British healthcare company Current Health. According to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, the consumer electronics giant expects to close the deal within the fiscal year, for an undisclosed amount. Best Buy also plans to finance the acquisition with cash and continue its plan to shell out over $2.5 billion on share repurchases in FY22.
Current Health specializes in remote patient monitoring and telehealth, and with this acquisition, Best Buy is increasing its presence in health care. Headquartered in Minnesota, Best Buy already owns two other healthcare companies. Back in 2018, it spent $800 million on GreatCall, a company specializing in emergency response services for senior citizens. The privately-held health services company has an enormous customer base of 900,000 paying subscribers.
Best Buy also acquired Critical Signal Technologies, another senior health care-providing company, a year later in 2019. Overall, the total amount spent by Best Buy on acquisitions in the health care space exceeds $1 billion.
Representatives of Best Buy and Current Health Are Highly Optimistic
Best Buy CEO Corie Barry, has often described the healthcare sector as an opportunity for growth. Barry cites factors that lend credence to her assertion. She mentioned baby boomers’ desire to age at home and the necessary cost-management in healthcare industry. The CEO also noted a rise in the popularity of health smart watches.
Best Buy health president, Deborah Di Sanzo, also weighed in. In her own words, “The future of consumer technology is directly connected to the future of healthcare”. Di Sanzo further stated that Best Buy possessed the unique wherewithal to assist customers in taking advantage of technology from home. She further adds that a holistic health care ecosystem is possible by integrating Current Health’s resources with Best Buy’s. In response to the acquisition news, Best Buy shares experienced an uptick of over 1% in premarket trading.
The CEO of Current Health, Christopher McCann, suggested that his company will remain in capable hands after the acquisition is complete. In a statement issued, he said about Best Buy:
“Best Buy has unparalleled physical reach, world-class supply chain logistics, and trusted support services–allowing us to provide a high-touch consumer experience, at scale”.
McCann further added that they “are excited to join with Best Buy Health to move safe and effective healthcare into the home globally”. He emphasized that the electronics retail giant shares Current Health’s core vision of delivering significantly more health care to homes. The Current Health platform weaves together telehealth capabilities, patient engagement tools, and in-home connectivity.
Back in 2019, Forbes stated that healthcare might eventually become a bigger business for Best Buy than selling electronics. That assertion may prove to be true in the coming years.
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