In an effort to connect home and hospital care, Qualcomm Inc. (Nasdaq: QCOM) medical subsidiary Qualcomm Life has acquired Capsule Technologie, a healthtech systems company that links medical devices and the software used by hospitals to handle patient data. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Qualcomm Life purchased Capsule from JMI Equity and Bulger Capital Partners, a pair that held a majority ownership stake in the company since 2012, Forbes reports. Paris-based Capsule is a global provider of medical device integration and clinical data management solutions with more than 1,930 hospital clients in 38 countries.
Under the deal, Capsule will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Qualcomm Life, according to a news release. Qualcomm is best known for its chip technology that go into many of today’s Android smartphones, according to Forbes.
The acquisition extends Qualcomm Life’s health offerings into the hospital setting, in a move meant to establish a more seamless transition from hospital to home care.
“Qualcomm is focused on strengthening its position in specific ‘Internet of Everything’ verticals, like health care,” Qualcomm president Derek Aberle said in a prepared statement. “The acquisition of Capsule expands the breadth of our health care platform, enabling us to provide connectivity solutions for the entire care continuum and create one of the world’s largest connected health ecosystems.”
To streamline the care process, Qualcomm aims to take Capsule’s hospital focus and combine it with the home care focus of its 2Net product, which was launched four years ago and has been sold to more than 500 companies to help collect patient data in the home. The device collects and encrypts biometric data from a patient’s medical devices and sends the information to a cloud backend for doctors or medical institutions to access.
“We’re extending our reach from the home to the hospital and all the points in between so wherever the patient might be,” Rick Valencia, senior vice president and general manager of Qualcomm Life, told Forbes. “We’ll create the connective tissue to bring all this data back into the system.”
The acquisition of Capsule builds upon recent Qualcomm transactions involving smaller companies, including the purchase of KMeL Robotics in February and Euvision, an image recognition platform, prior to that, Fortune reports
But the deal also comes at a time when Qualcomm is undergoing a strategic review of its business following an announcement by the wireless technology giant in July that it planned to lay off 4,700 employees as it has simultaneously faced pressure from investors to consider selling its wireless chip business, according to Xconomy.
Written by Kourtney Liepelt
Companies featured in this article:
Bulger Capital Partners, Capsule Technologie, JMI Equity, KMeL Robotics, Qualcomm Inc
