Cardinal Health plunks down $517 million for Healthcare Solutions to pump up specialty care

Cardinal buys Healthcare Solutions for $517M

DUBLIN, Ohio — Health care products distributor Cardinal Health plans to buy Healthcare Solutions Holding LLC for $517 million in cash, as it pushes to expand into specialty pharmaceutical services.

Cardinal, which is based in Dublin, Ohio, said Wednesday it may pay as much as $150 million on top of the purchase price over the next three years if certain growth milestones are reached.

Healthcare Solutions Holding is the parent company for several subsidiaries, including P4 Pathways and P4 Healthcare, Cardinal said. It provides tools and services like product data and claims management help for specialty care industry doctors, payers and drug makers.

“This acquisition is an important building block in our strategy to create a differentiated set of services for oncology and specialty customers,” Cardinal CEO George Barrett said in a statement.

The deal is expected to close early in Cardinal’s 2011 fiscal year, which starts next month.

The Dublin, Ohio, company said the deal will be neutral to slightly accretive in fiscal 2011 and “more meaningfully accretive” beyond that.

Cardinal stock rose 33 cents to $34.08 in morning trading.