The Information reports that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is bringing in outside economists to assess Amazon's proposed $3.9 billion acquisition of OneMedical.
The story says that the FTC has not made a decision whether to sue to stop the purchase, but that as it pulls together relevant information, staffers are making preparations "to file and litigate the case."
Amazon's purchase of 1Life Healthcare Inc., which operates under the name One Medical, would give the company control of a company that provides membership-based primary healthcare services to employees for more than 8,000 companies in a dozen major US markets. This is Amazon's third largest acquisition, after Whole Foods ($13.7 billion in 2017) and MGM ($8.5 billion in 2022).
The story breaks as it also has been reported that the FTC is considering the filing of a broader antitrust suit against Amazon that would challenge a number of its business practices as being anticompetitive.
- KC's View:
-
Remember how last year there were a bunch of streaming series about all the various travails at Theranos, Uber and WeWork? Seems like a pretty good bet that somewhere a streaming service - not Amazon prime Video - is putting together a series that looks at Amazon's recent history. They'll probably wait to go intro production until they have a sense of the denouement, but this is the stuff of great corporate drama. (I'd love to be in that writers' room.)
The question is what the title should be.
Always Day One. Or, Too Close To The Sun?
