Sage goes on a health kick

Accounting software company Sage Software purchased Emdeon Practice Services (EPS), the healthcare arm of the US IT software supplier Emdeon, on Tuesday in a deal worth around $565m (£296m).

EPS sells software and services for doctors' practices in the US.

Paul Walker, Sage chief executive, believes that a US-based healthcare company made a good target for Sage. It allows Sage "to market its products and services to a substantial new community of small and medium-sized businesses in the US," he said.

The acquisition "continues our strategy of providing industry-specific solutions by bringing dedicated Sage solutions to this business sector for the first time", Walker added.

Sage's aim, Walker said, was to couple Emdeon's products with Sage's, to offer "an integrated Sage solution to both new and existing Sage customers in the US, covering accounting, health records and practice management".

EPS revenue for the year ended 31 December, 2005 was approximately $304.5m (£159m). The company claims to have 20,000 customers, and to be "a leading vendor" of medical software to SMBs in the healthcare sector.