Microsoft has the longest Big Tech foothold in health IT, with healthcare acquisitions going back decades from 1999 to 2021.
Seven companies Microsoft has acquired in health IT:
July 1999: Microsoft acquired minority shares in WebMD for $250 million to integrate technology and information to the consumers in the healthcare industry.
February 2007: Microsoft said it was acquiring Medstory, a privately held company that developed intelligent web search technology for health information.
October 2007: The tech company expanded its reach in healthcare that same year by acquiring Global Care Solutions, a software company that developed health IT systems.
June 2009: Microsoft signed an agreement with Merck to acquire the assets of bio software company Rosetta Biosoftware.
February 2010: Microsoft purchased healthcare software company Sentillion. At the time of the acquisition, Sentillion had more than 1,000 hospitals among its customer base.
October 2011: Orion Health acquired Microsoft's hospital IT software assets.
July 2020: Microsoft purchased Orions Systems, an artificial intelligence company focused on video analytics and human/machine collaboration to create healthcare solutions.
April 2021: Microsoft announced its plans to buy speech recognition company Nuance Communications for nearly $20 billion to expand its healthcare offerings.