Nuance Focuses on Focus Informatics

In a healthcare transcription push, Burlington, Mass.-headquartered speech solutions provider Nuance Communications Inc., plans to nab Focus Informatics Inc., for $58 million.

Focus Informatics, Woburn, Mass., combines speech recognition with a Web-based editing platform and India-based operation.

Nuance expects the acquisition to add between $7 and $9 million in Dictaphone healthcare revenues for this year's fiscal earnings, and upwards of $18 million for next year's. The acquisition is expected to close by March 31.

Accuro Acquires the Woodmoor Group

Dallas, Texas-based Accuro Healthcare Solutions Inc. recently announced that it is expanding its suite of revenue management solutions with the acquisition of Raleigh, N.C.-based Woodmoor Group Inc., a provider of Web-based accounts receivables management, denials management and revenue analytics tools.

According to Woodmoor, it offers an integrated product suite of three application solutions; QMSoftware, which enables management to monitor and analyze accounts receivables, key performance indicators, daily transactions and trends, payer profiling and other metrics; MyMentor, that assists business office personnel in prioritizing and automating account worklists, and analyzing productivity trends; and QMSDenial which facilitates the strategic management of denied claims through active and pending worklists, payer profiling and custom reporting on key performance indicators.

According to Accuro, the Woodmoor Group will enable it to combine various components of the revenue cycle in a solution that facilitates the collaborative exchange of data between its products. Accuro states this is its sixth strategic acquisition in three years.

Kronos Snapped Up by Hellman & Friedman

Chelmsford, Mass.-based Kronos Incorporated is being acquired by the private equity firm Hellman & Friedman Capital Partners VI, L.P. and its related funds for approximately $1.8 billion.

Under the terms of the agreement, Kronos shareholders will receive $55 in cash for each share of Kronos common stock, representing a 34.4 percent premium over Kronos’ closing share price from 20 trading prior to the announcement.

Kronos’ Board of Directors has approved the merger agreement and recommended that shareholders adopt it. Pending shareholder approval, the transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2007. The transaction will be financed through a combination of debt and equity financing and cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments of Kronos.

InnerWireless and PanGo Merge

InnerWireless Inc., of Richardson, Texas and PaGo Networks Inc., of Framingham, Mass., are merging.

In joining, the two will combine the InnerWireless location services platform and asset tracking technology with the PanGo wireless management platform and deployment capability to create an integrated, wireless location services company.

According to the companies, the merged entity will offer end-to-end, turnkey solutions for mission (and life) critical markets such as healthcare. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Prime Health and PHX Partner Up

Brentwood, Tenn.-based Prime Health Services, a National Preferred Provider Organization (PPO), and Summit, N.J.-based Premier Healthcare Exchange Inc. (PHX), an automated healthcare cost containment solutions company, recently announced a strategic agreement.

McKesson and Toshiba Expand Partnership

According to McKesson, Toshiba is slated to offer Horizon Cardiology Hemo, a component of McKesson's Horizon Cardiology solution, as an option with Toshiba's Infinix portfolio of vascular X-ray systems.

McKesson claims that the hemodynamic monitoring system enables cardiologists to review patient vitals side-by-side with real-time patient reporting during interventional procedures, thus eliminating repetitive data entry.

The latest agreement between McKesson and Toshiba is an extension of a radiology imaging partnership that began nine months ago.

Language Access Network Teams up with EnovateIT

Columbus, Ohio-based Language Access Network, a video interpretation service company, recently signed a national sales agreement with Troy, Mich.-based EnovateIT, a provider of mobile wireless solutions.

According to Language Access Network, the agreement with EnovateIT will accelerate the adoption of Martti by hospitals. Martti (My Accessible Real-Time Trusted Interpreter), a new service that uses digital video to provide interpretation services, gives translations for over 150 languages, including American Sign Language.

Language Access Network claims that this system will further augment hospitals’ current approach to caring for over 42 million non-English speaking people in the United States.

Computer Tracking with Computrace

Vancouver, Canada-based Absolute Software Corporation, a national provider of security solutions, announced that Austin, Texas-based Motion Computing has embedded support for Computrace in its LE1700 Tablet PC.

According to Absolute Software, Computrace helps customers address issues of regulatory compliance, data protection, asset tracking and theft recovery. Absolute claims that it provides a $1,000 theft recovery guarantee and customers can activate a remote data delete feature to protect data on missing or stolen computers.

Battery Ventures Buying Quovadx

Quovadx Inc., a global software company, has reached an agreement to sell its CareScience division to the Premier Inc. healthcare alliance for $34.9 million. In a second and separate transaction, Quovadx has agreed to sell the rest of the company — which includes Rogue Wave Software and Integration Solutions operating divisions — to Battery Ventures, a venture capital and private equity firm.

Quovadx's purchase price, which includes the proceeds received from the CareScience sale, is $136.7 million, subject to a working capital adjustment at closing. Thus, stated Quovadx, stockholders are expected to receive $136.7 million, or $3.15 per share, a 24 percent premium when compared to the stock's closing price on March 30.