EHR vendors have been attracting the interest of tech giants and other non-healthcare companies as they look to enter the healthcare technology sector.
Most recently, EHR vendor NextGen Healthcare was acquired by private equity firm Thoma Bravo for $1.6 billion. Thoma Bravo is a firm that is known for investing in software.
Thoma Bravo said during its acquisition of NextGen that it aims to accelerate the EHR vendor's product investments to "better support the increasingly complex needs of ambulatory providers and ultimately improve patient outcomes," according to Peter Hernandez, vice president at Thoma Bravo.
But this isn't Thoma Bravo's first foray into the healthcare market.
In 2016, the equity firm acquired Imprivata, a healthcare IT security company, for $544 million.
Thoma Bravo also acquired MedeAnalytics, a healthcare analytics and performance management solutions provider, in 2019, as well as SPH Analytics, a healthcare analytics and population health management company, in 2017.
Both MedeAnalytics and SPH Analytics were acquired by other organizations shortly after Thoma Bravo.
Thoma Bravo isn't the only one spending billions of dollars on an EHR vendor. Tech giant Oracle spent $28.4 billion in June 2022 to acquire Cerner.
Cerner, which had 24.9 percent of hospital market share in 2022, was one of Oracle's largest acquisitions.
Oracle had several healthcare-focused initiatives prior to the Cerner acquisition.
For instance, the tech company has cloud-based solutions and services tailored for the healthcare industry and healthcare data management.