Health care deals at CVS and Amazon are being watched by the FTC

CVS and Amazon's planned acquisitions of One Medical and Signify Health are being closely monitored by the FTC, Trade Algo reported on Feb. 16.

‍

The FTC has been closely monitoring the deals over the last few years as investors have been increasingly cracking down on mergers between Big Tech companies.

‍

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has requested more information about the proposed $3.9 billion deal between Amazon and One Medical, for example, as 1Life Healthcare, which operates One Medical's primary care clinics in 25 U.S. markets, announced on Sept. 2, 2017.

‍

The Wall Street Journal reports that the investigation could delay the closing of the deal since U.S. antitrust investigations, on average, take about 11 months to complete.

‍

It has also been reported that the FTC has been preparing an antitrust case against the deal in the past few months.

‍

In a report from Bloomberg, the Federal Trade Commission has hired outside economists in order to review the proposed merger and it has stated that it may sue Amazon for alleged anticompetitive conduct.

‍

Amazon informed Trade Algo that it continues to "cooperate with the FTC in reviewing this transaction."

‍

It's not just Amazon.

‍

The FTC is also investigating CVS' plans to acquire home health company Signify Health in connection with its planned acquisition of CVS.

‍

The Department of Justice sent both companies a second request for information regarding the merger on October 19 as part of its investigation into the merger.

‍

"Signify Health and CVS Health have been working with the Department of Justice (DOJ) in a cooperative manner and will continue to do so," CVS stated in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. 

‍

CVS, according to the report, originally planned to close the transaction in the first half of 2023, but now it anticipates closing the deal in the second quarter of 2023, instead of in the first half.

‍

Although CVS has not received any FTC requests regarding its acquisition of Oak Street, John Ransom, an economic analyst with the firm, said the FTC's landscape may prove to be just as challenging for this acquisition, as it has been for others.