The U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority has given UnitedHealth the OK to acquire health technology firm EMIS Group.
Bordeaux UK Holdings II — a unit of UnitedHealth's Optum business — agreed to acquire the U.K.-based EMIS Group in January 2022 in a $1.51 billion deal. The Competition and Markets Authority began investigating the proposed merger in January and referred the deal for an in-depth investigation in March.
EMIS supplies data management systems to the U.K.'s National Health Service, including the electronic patient record system used by most NHS general practitioners, according to a Sept. 29 Competition and Markets Authority.
The decision for a deeper investigation was based on the regulator's concerns that the deal would allow Optum to limit its competitors' access to the data held within EMIS's patient record system or to degrade the digital connections to the system, which rivals rely on to provide integrated software, according to the release.
The regulator's deeper investigation found that the deal does not raise competitive concerns, the release said.
UnitedHealth was given a provisional green light on the deal in August.