Amazon to acquire primary health care provider One Medical for about $3.9 billion in cash

Two years ago, retail giant Amazon entered the pharmacy business with the launch of Amazon Pharmacy to enable customers to order prescriptions online. Now, the retail giant is making inroads into the $3 trillion healthcare industry.

Today, Amazon said it will acquire primary health care provider One Medical for nearly $3.9 billion in an all-cash deal or $18 a share to deepen its presence in health care and reinvent the “healthcare experience.”

In a statement, Neil Lindsay, senior vice president of Amazon Health Services, said that by acquiring One Medical, Amazon hopes to reinvent the “healthcare experience,” from how people book appointments, to the experience of being seen by a physician.

“We see lots of opportunity to both improve the quality of the experience and give people back valuable time in their days,” Lindsay said. “We love inventing to make what should be easy easier and we want to be one of the companies that helps dramatically improve the healthcare experience over the next several years.”

Commenting on the acquisition, One Medical CEO Amir Dan Rubin said  there is an “immense opportunity to make the health care experience more accessible, affordable and even enjoyable for patients, providers, and payers.”

One Medical, which went public two years ago, operates a network of boutique primary care practices and also offers a range of telehealth services. According to a securities filing, One Medical has grown to administer 188 medical offices in 25 markets, and counts 767,000 members.