This week Athenahealth is amid a takeover bid of at least $6.5 billion.  Elliott Associates offered $160 per share in cash to take athenahealth private, and the investment firm appears willing to up the ante.  While athenahealth has not publicly responded, here’s a look back at some of the moves by the company and outside forces that preceded the offer.

May 16, 2018

After one week of silence from athenahealth regarding the proposed acquisition of the cloud-based public company for $6.5 billion or even more, Elliott Management sends a scathing letter to the board of directors scolding the group for its failure to engage.

May 7, 2018

Activist investing firm Elliott Management makes an offer to buy athenahealth. Co-founder and CEO Jonathan Bush, who is in the midst of retooling the cloud-based company, states that the board of directors would "carefully review the proposal to determine the course of action that it believes is in the best interest of the company and shareholders.”

April 5, 2018

Athenahealth CEO Jonathan Bush said he expects that in the next 12 to 24 months, athenahealth will be completely deconstructed into a set of standalone micro-services. The change, he said, would result in having many more products than the company offers today. The shift will also allow many other people to make products, he said.

March 12, 2018

Healthcare IT News caught up with Bush at HIMSS18 in Las Vegas. He told us something we had never heard before. The company he founded with Todd Park launched with bad software. “We literally built a company proudly on the fact that we had bad software,” Bush said, “Little by little by little as we got bigger and bigger and bigger that bad software made it harder for even us who knew it so well to use.” 

Feb 7, 2018

Athenahealth appointed former GE CEO Jeff Immelt as chairman of its board of directors. The move was one of several strategic initiatives the company had started in 2017, as it planned to build a more focused and efficient company and, of course to drive growth, the better to boost shareholder value.

May 18, 2017

Since Elliott Associates scooped up a nearly 10 percent share in athenahealth, rumors have been rampant that its founder and well-known activist investor Paul Singer may be eyeing the cloud-based healthcare technology vendor as its next big deal. And that likely means a sale or merger.

Twitter: @Bernie_HITN
Email the writer: bernie.monegain@himssmedia.com