Evolent Health Will Acquire Valence Health for $145 Million

Evolent Health will acquire the majority of Valence Health for $145 million, the companies have announced. The deal, which involves $35 million in cash and the remainder in Evolent shares, excludes Valence’s state insurance cooperative contracts, which will continue to operate under a newly created entity.

Evolent CEO Frank Williams said in a statement, “The addition of the Valence Health business will provide increased scale and client diversification, and we expect it to accelerate our target timeline to Adjusted EBITDA break-even in 2017 by one to two quarters. We believe this transaction will strengthen our business strategically and financially and position it for continued growth well into the future."

Chicago-based Valence Health offers technology and consulting services to providers moving to value-based care. The company last year hired as its CEO Andy Eckert, who had previously served as CEO of Eclipsys, TriZetto, and CRC Health as well as currently serving as board chair of Varian Medical Systems.

Evolent Health, which also offers integrated solutions that help providers shift to value-based care, was formed in 2011 with The Advisory Board Company and UPMC and went public in June 2015. It has a $1.2 billion market cap as share price has risen 3 percent in the year since its IPO.

I interviewed Evolent President and Co-Founder Seth Blackley in August 2015 and interviewed Valence Health then-CEO Phil Kamp (now chief strategy officer) in March 2015.