Software giant Oracle inked its biggest deal ever in December — an agreement to acquire Cerner for $28.3 billion. Here are five things to know about the deal and its progress.
- The deal is undergoing a federal review under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act. Barring requests from the Securities and Exchange Commission or Justice Department for additional information, the review will close by Feb. 22.
- Cerner CEO David Feinberg, MD, as well as the EHR giant's chief technology officer, Jerome Labat, have agreed not to leave the company in the year following its acquisition by Oracle.
- The proposed acquisition could mean million-dollar golden parachutes for Cerner's C-suite as well as its former CEO. Dr. Feinberg, Mr. Labat, Cerner CFO Mark Erceg and former Cerner CEO Brent Shafer are poised for payouts totaling $64.4 million if they're terminated after the deal closes. Dr. Feinberg and Mr. Labat said they will waive their respective payouts if they leave voluntarily.
- The deal will require Oracle to continue pushing Cerner's transition to the cloud and equip the EHR with increased capacity for virtual care capabilities. Under the acquisition, Cerner will move its systems to Oracle's Gen2 Cloud platform. As part of the transition, Oracle also will add its hands-free digital voice assistant to Cerner's interface.
- By acquiring Cerner, Oracle said it will be able to provide clinicians with digital tools that will make it easier to access information from the cloud. Some analysts predict the deal could pave the way to reduce patient data silos and interoperability challenges among hospitals and health systems.