Santa Rosa Acquires InfoPartners – Healthcare Consulting M&A Activity Continues to Accelerate

In our ongoing dialogue with the leading Professional Services firms we consistently hear that the Healthcare end-market is a top priority from an M&A perspective. Acquisitive companies have been making these statements for the past year and it includes firms spanning management consulting, IT consulting and staffing. From the Big 4, to IBM, Accenture and Navigant to government contractors to the smaller privately held professional services firms, healthcare continues to be the primary area of focus.

We have seen a number of deals over the past 12 months including SAIC’s acquisition of Vitalize, Navigant’s acquisition of Paragon, Healthway’s acquisition of Navvis & Company, Deloitte’s acquisition of Intrasphere, PWC’s acquisition of ISH and the just announced acquisition of InfoPartners by Santa Rosa Consulting. These deals have all been for premium valuations which has in turn attracted the Private Equity community which is actively seeking Healthcare consulting targets. The dearth of high quality healthcare focused consulting firms with critical mass is adding to the urgency to act by strategic buyers and private equity firms. This is driving values which in turn is compelling owners of privately held firms to act. At Clearsight we are seeing activity with management consulting firms, IT firms and staffing firms focused on the sector and we expect several prominent deals to be announced over the next couple of quarters at premium valuations.