Washington Post: Why Amazon is buying a little-known medical provider for $3.9 billion
Amazon will dramatically expand its health-care reach with its planned $3.9 billion acquisition of One Medical, a primary care provider with 188 offices in 25 markets nationwide.
The e-commerce giant went big: It offered $18 a share for One Medical’s parent company, 1Life Healthcare — 77 percent higher than the previous day’s closing price. Sparks flew on Wall Street after Thursday’s announcement, powering the stock up nearly 70 percent.
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Krista Brown, a senior policy analyst at the American Economic Liberties Project, a nonprofit advocacy group that supports antitrust causes, called the acquisition “terrifying” in a statement.
“Acquiring One Medical will entrench Amazon’s growing presence in the health care industry, undermining competition.” Brown said. “It will also pose serious risks to patients whose sensitive data will be captured by a firm whose own Chief Information Security Office once described access to customer data as ‘a free-for-all.’”