McKesson Corporation, the health care services and information technology company, agreed on Thursday to buy PSS World Medical for $1.46 billion.
McKesson, based in San Francisco, is offering shareholders of PSS World Medical $29 in cash for each share in the medical products and services company, a 34 percent premium on the company's closing price on Wednesday. With the assumption of debt, the deal is valued at $2.1 billion.
Shares of PSS jumped more than 30 percent in pre-market trading. The Jacksonville, Fla.-based company also canceled its second-quarter earnings conference call.
The acquisition is McKesson's biggest since November 2010, when it agreed to buy US Oncology, which has links to 1,300 community-based oncologists, for $2.16 billion, including debt.
McKesson said it would combine its own medical surgical business with the operations of PSS to offer medical supplies and other services to healthcare professionals.
“The combina tion of McKesson's medical surgical business and PSS World Medical is an exciting next step in McKesson's commitment to improve business health and clinical performance across healthcare,†McKesson's chief executive, John H. Hammergren, said in a statement.
The announcement is the latest in a flurry of health care deals in recent months.
The UnitedHealth Group agreed to buy a 90 percent stake in the Brazilian health care provider Amil Participações for $4.9 billion on Oct. 8 as the American insurer looked to expand in the fast-growing country. Health Care REIT Inc. also agreed in August to buy Sunrise Senior Living for $844.6 million in a deal aimed at creating one of the biggest owners of nursing homes in the United States, Canada and Britain.
McKesson said it planned to secure $100 million of annual cost savings by the fourth year after the deal to buy PSS World Medical is completed.
