Cerner bought an unnamed cybersecurity company in the second quarter for $35 million, an acquisition the EHR company's CFO called "pretty small," when it was revealed during its recent earnings call.
Cerner's second-quarter cash flow statement included the acquisition, which CFO Marc Naughton identified as the recently purchased company.
"We can see that as an opportunity," he said when questioned about the line item, as transcribed by Seeking Alpha, a company focused on the investment community. "We already offered those services through our professional services organization, but we think in the current environment, security has always been a big focus and being able to bring on resources that have contacts in that, particularly contacts outside of our client base where we can extend that service capability beyond our existing clients, was something that was attractive to us."
Mr. Naughton said Cerner did not report the acquisition beyond the cash flow statement because it was "pretty small."
He provided no more details about the acquisition on the call.
"It's not really something that we can talk about a lot, but it's enhancing our capabilities inside the security space," he said.
Later during the call, Cerner President Don Trigg mentioned cybersecurity as it relates to the shift toward telemedicine during the pandemic.
"[Telemedicine] will create interesting opportunities for us to think about areas like cybersecurity, where we've made big investments contextual for strategies like tele, as we see increased sensitivity to what the go-forward strategies need to look like in a different regulatory and administrative environment."