Investment in health care merger and acquisition activity nosedived by 38 percent in 2012, although the number of individual deals that were completed increased.
In 2012, dealmakers committed $143.3 billion to finance the year’s activity in the health care merger, acquisition and takeover market, according to Norwalk research firm Irving Levin Associates.
That total deal flow represents a 38 percent decline compared to the $231 billion spent in health care M&A activity 2011.
Last year ranks ninth out of the last 10 years in dollar volume, with only 2003’s $94.2 billion in deals coming in lower.
In terms of the number of health care deals announced, however, 2012 was one of the busiest in the past decade, with 1,063 deals, up 5.9 percent compared with 2011’s 1,004 mergers.
Home health and hospice recorded a 20.7 percent gain in deal volume and a $5.7 billion jump in deal volume.
