The Federal Trade Commission is looking into acquiring Amazon for $3.9 billion of primary healthcare organization One Medical, a move that could delay the completion of the deal.
Both One Medical and Amazon received a request for additional information in connection with an FTC merger review on Friday, according to a filing with securities regulators by One Medical’s parent, 1Life Healthcare Inc. in San Francisco.
Amazon announced plans in late July to buy One Medical, a concierge-style medical service with approximately 190 medical offices in 25 markets. Last week, the e-commerce giant said it would shut down its own hybrid virtual home care service called Amazon Care, a competitor to One Medical, because it was not meeting customers’ needs.
The One Medical deal, the first to be announced under CEO Andy Jassy, was another push into healthcare for Amazon your PillPack online pharmacy acquisition for $750 million in 2018.
Groups calling for stricter antitrust regulations have urged the FTC to block the One Medical merger, arguing it would further expand Amazon’s massive market power. When it was announced in July, the American Economic Liberties Project in Washington said it was unclear whether Amazon would protect patients and their sensitive medical records.
“Allowing Amazon to control health care data for more than 700,000 more people is terrifying,” Krista Brown, the group’s senior policy analyst, said in a July statement. “Amazon has no business being a major player in the healthcare space, and regulators should block this $4 billion deal to make sure it doesn’t become one.”
An Amazon spokesman declined to comment Friday.
The FTC has already been investigating Amazon Prime’s signup and cancellation practices and has issued civil subpoenas in the case.
Last year, the company unsuccessfully asked FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan to recuse herself from separate antitrust investigations into its business, arguing it would be biased. Khan was a notable critic of Seattle-based Amazon and other Big Tech companies before assuming the presidency. As a Yale law student in 2017, he wrote an influential study titled “Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox.”
One Medical would mark one of Amazon’s biggest acquisitions, below its $13.7 billion purchase agreement Whole Foods in 2017 and its $8.5 billion purchase from Hollywood studio MGM, which closed earlier this year.
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- Federal Trade Commission
- Amazon
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