McKesson, Change Healthcare to Run Combined Health IT Firm Under ‘Change Healthcare’ Brand

McKesson (NYSE: MCK) and Change Healthcare Holdings will name their new healthcare information technology firm Change Healthcare in an effort to reflect the merger of McKesson™s technology solutions business with the Nashville, Tennessee-based software and analytics provider.

Change Healthcare will adopt a new logo and visual identity and will offer analytics, software, technology-based services and network platforms to clients, McKesson said Thursday.

John Hammergren, chairman and CEO of McKesson; and Neil de Crescenzo, president and CEO of Change Healthcare; will respectively serve as board chairman and chief executive of the new entity.

Both companies expect the transaction to be completed in the first half of 2017, subject to closing conditions.

The companies announced the transaction in June and said they expect the new company to record more than $150 million in annual synergies by its second year of operations following the deal™s completion.

McKesson will own approximately 70 percent of the new firm, while Change Healthcare™s stockholders that include Blackstone and Hellman & Friedman will retain the remaining equity stake.

McKesson and Change Healthcare will receive approximately $1.25 billion and $1.75 billion, respectively, in cash payments upon closure of the transaction.

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