BROADCASTS.com

\u201cA lot of strategics that are well capitalized, so large public companies that are flush with cash, that have seen the valuation trends in healthcare IT over the last few years mostly sat that out, with a few notable exceptions. They\u2019re now saying this is sort of like Black Friday or Cyber Monday, we\u2019re buying companies and now\u2019s the time. And so you have a lot of strategics thinking really hard about what their priorities are and how they can execute on M&A now that sets them up for a post-cycle boom in the next few years taking advantage of the attractive valuations that we have today.   

\u201cNow that hasn\u2019t happened overnight and I think part of the reason we haven\u2019t seen a true deal explosion of activity yet from strategics is because there\u2019s still some elements of a bid/ask spread between buyers and sellers. Buyers are saying \u2018Well, you\u2019re 40% off so you have time to sell.\u2019 Sellers are saying \u2018We were worth 50, 60, 70% more just a few months ago and that\u2019s what we\u2019re still worth, that\u2019s fundamental value.\u2019 That spread is narrowing and it will continue to narrow over time and we\u2019re approaching the strike zone where I think you\u2019ll see a lot more deal activity because both sides see that there\u2019s value to be created from meeting in the middle and I expect a lot of that especially going into \u201823.\u201d said Rahul Rekhi, Co-Lead of Healthcare IT at Lazard and Head of Lazard\u2019s Special Opportunities Group.  

Learn more about Lazard: https://www.lazard.com/ 

Find more great health IT content: https://www.healthcareittoday.com/