Lyra Martin Tech 07.21.2022 12:Jul PM EDT

Amazon Inc. Announces Plan to Buy One Medical for $18 Per Share

One Medical would be Amazon's third-largest purchase after Whole Foods Market and MGM.

Amazon to Acquire Primary-Care Startup, One Medical

As part of its ongoing effort to get a foothold in the healthcare industry, Amazon Inc. recently announced that it would acquire primary-care startup One Medical for $18 per share.

According to One Medical's net debt and the value of the all-cash deal, which includes $3.9 billion, Amazon said in a statement on Thursday.

Following its purchase of mail-order pharmacy PillPack Inc. in 2018 for $750 million, Amazon recently opened an online pharmacy. It also built a primary-care clinic for its staff members and certain other businesses, among other health-related activities.

The acquisition of One Medical would rank as Amazon's third-largest acquisition behind that of organic supermarket Whole Foods Market and movie company Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

One Medical runs a network of upscale primary care clinics and provides various telemedicine services. One Medical went public in 2020.

It has 182 medical offices in 25 regions around the US under the parent company 1Life Healthcare Inc. Customers must subscribe to access the company's doctors and 24-hour digital health services.

According to its most recent quarterly statistics, it has 767,000 members and is responsible for 188 medical offices throughout 25 markets. One Medical reported a first-quarter net loss of $90.9 million on sales of $254.1 million.

Additionally, its parent company, 1Life Healthcare, saw its shares start Thursday's (July 22) trading session about 66 percent higher. Prior to the announcement of the agreement, shares of One Medical were trading at $10.18 as of Wednesday's closing.

At the same time, the price of Amazon rose in early Thursday (July 22) trade by almost 1%.

Amazon Spent $4.98M Lobbying Congress to Curb in Tech Oligopolies

During the second quarter of this year, Amazon.com Inc. spent a record $4.98 million lobbying Congress to advance legislation meant to rein in technological oligopolies.

In the second quarter of 2021, Amazon spent 2.5 percent more on lobbying, according to disclosure forms submitted on Wednesday (July 20). The e-commerce titan spent slightly more than it did during the first three months when it set a new record by paying $4.97 million on lobbying.

In the second quarter of this year, the big internet corporations and their trade associations spent $17.3 million lobbying in Washington to stop legislation that may require them to fundamentally alter their business methods.

The Business Mirror cites a Bloomberg count of the top five US corporations and their primary trade association. The sector outspent one of Washington's largest contributors in the most recent quarter: top pharmaceutical companies and their major trade group, which spent about $16 million.

In all, the four largest technology businesses spent $35.3 million in the first half of 2022 with the help of their third-party organizations, a 15% increase over the $30.5 million spent in the same period last year.

The proposal, championed by Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar and Rhode Island Representative David Cicilline, would ban internet corporations from leveraging their dominating platforms to harm rivals. Another law would loosen Apple and Google's hold on the app ecosystem, compelling them to expose their platforms to third-party app shops and applications.

Amazon.com, Apple, Meta, and Google have spent millions on campaigning to repeal the legislation.