Virtual care provider Teladoc Health acquires Livongo for $18.5 billion to help people everywhere get high quality and personalized healthcare

Telehealth sector continues to see massive growth as patients avoid hospital and doctor visit to prevent exposure to the deadly coronavirus. One of the leading companies in this space is Teladoc, a New York-based provider of virtual doctor visits provider and a global leader in virtual care, transforming the access, cost and quality dynamics of health care delivery.

Today, Teladoc announced that it’s acquiring digital health company Livongo at $18.5 billion. The San Francisco-based Livongo is a provider of coaching services that help people manage chronic conditions, falls in the category of remote health management, which is also seeing soaring demand during the pandemic.

The combination of Teladoc Health and Livongo creates a global leader in consumer centered virtual care. “This merger firmly establishes Teladoc Health at the forefront of the next-generation of healthcare,” said Jason Gorevic, CEO of Teladoc Health. “Livongo is a world-class innovator we deeply admire and has demonstrated success improving the lives of people living with chronic conditions. Together, we will further transform the healthcare experience from preventive care to the most complex cases, bringing ‘whole person’ health to consumers and greater value to our clients and shareholders as a result.”

“This highly strategic combination will create the leader in consumer-centered virtual care and provides a unique opportunity to further accelerate the growth of our data-driven member platform and experience,” said Glen Tullman, Livongo Founder and Executive Chairman. “By expanding the reach of Livongo’s pioneering Applied Health Signals platform and building on Teladoc Health’s end-to-end virtual care platform, we’ll empower more people to live better and healthier lives. This transaction recognizes Livongo’s significant progress and will enable Livongo shareholders to benefit from long-term upside as the combined company is positioned to serve an even larger addressable market with a truly unmatched offering.”

In a joint press release on Wednesday, the two companies said that the merger will help people everywhere get “high quality, personalized, technology-enabled longitudinal care that improves outcomes and lowers costs across the full spectrum of health.”

Early this year, Teladoc and Livongo were worth a combined $8.5 billion. Now they’re joining forces in one of the biggest deals of the year. The two companies combined are said to be worth about $37 billion, according to Piper Sandler,

Founded in 2002, Teladoc is recognized as one of the leading companies in virtual care. The company directly delivers millions of medical visits across 175 countries each year through the Teladoc Health Medical Group and enables millions of patient and provider touchpoints for thousands of hospitals, health systems and physician practices globally. The company is also ranked #1 among direct-to-consumer telehealth providers in the J.D. Power 2019 U.S.