Amazon, which is increasingly eyeing the health side, will acquire the American private healthcare network One Medical for 3.9 billion dollars (3.8 billion euros), we learned on Thursday 21 July. This is a new example of its desire for diversification.
The Seattle group has set its sights on this young company which has made technology an essential and differentiating aspect of its offer. He thus aims for a “reinvention” care sector, explained in a press release, Neil Lindsay, vice president of the health branch of Amazon.
Books, supermarket or streaming
Originally an online book seller, Amazon has continued to diversify since its creation in 1994, from supermarkets (Whole Foods) to streaming (Prime Video), via dematerialized computing (cloud).
In 2019, the Seattle giant launched a telemedicine service, called “Amazon Care”. Initially dedicated to company employees only, the offer, which also includes home visits, was offered, in 2021, to all companies in the United States. In 2020, Amazon also launched a prescription drug delivery platform, Amazon Pharmacy.
Previously, the group founded by Jezz Bezos had given up on an ambitious project, undertaken in 2018, for a new health care support system with the bank JPMorgan Chase and the Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate. “We think healthcare is pretty high on the list of services that need revamping”explained Neil Lindsay.
Like its telemedicine service, Amazon says it wants to develop a more modern health offer, which is more adapted to current lifestyles, more personalized and less time-consuming. “We see many opportunities to improve service quality and save people time”defended the manager.
One Medical is headed by 1Life Healthcare, based in San Francisco (California), which went public in early 2020.