Athenahealth to acquire mobile health app provider

WATERTOWN, Mass. — A company that provides cloud-based electronic health record, practice management and care-coordination services is buying a developer of point-of-care mobile health applications for physicians.

Athenahealth announced Monday that it would buy Epocrates for about $293 million, or $11.75 per share. The deal for Epocrates, used by more than 330,000 physicians, is expected to close in second quarter 2013, pending approval from Epocrates' shareholders and other conditions.

"I have been an admirer of Epocrates since it first emerged and have watched the company grow consistently, one app download at a time, as it has cemented itself in to the consciousness of America's physicians," Athenahealth president, chairman and CEO Jonathan Bush said. "No other company has been able to replicate the brand awareness, familiarity and trust that Epocrates has across the clinical mobile user base."

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