Kansas City-based Cerner in talks to be acquired by tech giant Oracle, report says
Cerner Corp., Kansas City’s largest private employer, is in talks to be acquired by tech giant Oracle, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.
The Wall Street Journal story cites anonymous sources familiar with talks between the two companies. Sources predict the buyout could be worth $30 billion. If Cerner were bought by Oracle, valued at more than $280 billion, it would go down as one of the largest takeovers of the year, according to the Journal.
Cerner officials could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday night.
Based in Austin, Texas, Oracle designs and sells hardware and software products.
Cerner got its roots in Kansas City as healthcare IT provider by pioneering the digitization of the nation’s paper records. It grew exponentially into one of the top players in that industry.
For years, Cerner was defined by the leadership of Neal Patterson who with Paul Gorup and Cliff Illig created the company in 1979. Patterson remained at the company until his death in 2017.
Cerner currently employs some 13,000 employees across several campuses in the Kansas City area. Across the globe, it counts some 28,000 employees, Cerner officials said earlier this year.
It’s unclear what an acquisition would mean for Cerner’s local workforce. But it would certainly be a big blow to the city to lose the headquarters.
Cities especially covet headquarters as they not only bring high-paying jobs to town, but they often contribute more to civic and philanthropic pursuits than other employers.
Last year, the region lost another major headquarters as T-Mobile completed its purchase of Overland Park-based Sprint Corp.
For years, Cerner was a company defined by growth, adding new employees and shiny new offices.
But in recent years, the firm has scaled back its footprint as it has explored how to stay relevant and competitive in a time when most of the nation’s medical records have already been switched over to digital records. While it still provides medical record keeping software for hospitals and doctor’s offices, the company has been exploring new business lines, particularly those that allow it to capitalize on the massive sets of healthcare data it manages.
In 2018, Brent Shafer became the first outsider to lead Cerner, ushering in an era of change as the company undertook what he described as a “transformation.” Thousands of employees were laid off in multiple rounds of job cuts. And the company listed several office buildings for sale, including a major complex in Kansas City, Kansas, that only opened in 2013.
With business ties to Amazon, Cerner has long been speculated as fertile ground for a takeover, particularly from major tech players like Apple, Amazon and Google.
Such speculation only intensified when Cerner hired David Feinberg as its CEO this fall. Feinberg is a medical doctor who previously worked as the vice president of Google Health.
This story was originally published December 16, 2021 at 10:41 PM.
