Siemens to Purchase Shared Medical Systems

Siemens Medical Engineering Group, U.S. affiliate of the Medical Engineering Group of Siemens AG, today announced it will acquire Shared Medical Systems Corp. (SMS) in a cash purchase of stock.

For $73 a share, Siemens will own a leading supplier of services and IT systems for administrative and clinical processes in the healthcare industry. Shared Medical Systems (SMS) has annual sales of $1.2 billion and 7,600 employees.

Heinrich Pierer, president and chief executive officer, Siemens AG said the purchase is part of the company’s strategy to strengthen the range of services and IT solutions in its portfolio. Currently services account for 25 percent of the company’s sales and its goal is to increase this to 50 percent.

“The acquisition is an ideal move for bolstering our position in the U.S. market and further confirms Siemens’ transformation into an IT-drive, high-tech company,” he said.

Estimating that the IT market in the healthcare sector will grow 10 percent annually, the company feels its competencies in medical technologies and SMS’ strength in healthcare IT and networking makes this an optimal fit.

Erich Reinhardt, president, Siemens Medical Engineering Group, feels this deal puts the company in a position to offer its customers a unique package of complete solutions and will further differentiate it from other suppliers.

“Our aim is to enable more effective healthcare management while helping to improve the quality and efficiency of healthcare,” he said.

Healthcare ASP Shared Medical Systems operates health applications for over 1,000 health providers with connections to over 400,000 customer workstations, and processes 80 million transactions each day.

Siemens Medical Engineering Group is a large supplier of innovative products, services and complete solutions for the healthcare industry.