Premier, Inc. Acquires MEMdata

CHARLOTTE, N.C., April 7, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Premier, Inc. (Nasdaq:PINC) today announced it has acquired MEMdata, LLC, an equipment planning, sourcing and analytics business focused on capital equipment needs for existing medical facilities, as well as those under construction.

The addition of MEMdata's capabilities is expected to enhance Premier's ability to drive meaningful supply chain savings for its hospital and health system members in the high-cost areas of construction and capital equipment acquisitions.

"Capital equipment is a large-spend category that presents challenges for our members since products are purchased infrequently and technology changes rapidly," said Premier President and CEO Susan DeVore. "Capital equipment planning is an important step in construction and renovation projects, and can be critical in reducing costly re-work or change orders. With MEMdata, we now have the ability to provide both planning and transactional support related to capital equipment procurement to help our members further drive savings."

MEMdata offers two main services to help care providers reduce capital equipment and construction costs. MEMdata leverages an electronic request for proposal (eRFP) process and proprietary databases containing a wide range of equipment specifications, quotations, price benchmarking reports and additional data. This information provides healthcare executives with pricing transparency on comparable technologies. MEMdata also offers full equipment planning, inventory, procurement and project management services for care provider construction projects.

"Providers nationwide have to make tough choices on how to most effectively and efficiently provide care," said Bob Yancy, CEO of MEMdata. "Our services help providers obtain timely and credible pricing benchmarks for clinically equivalent products to drive meaningful savings without compromising care quality."

Since its inception in 2000, MEMdata has steadily grown its proprietary databases, software and services. In addition to reducing capital spend for existing medical facilities, MEMdata services have expanded to include equipment planning, medical space planning and project management for medical facility construction.

"Our acquisition of MEMdata is strategically aligned with Premier's objective to continue to drive significant value for our members," said Premier Chief Operating Officer Michael J. Alkire. "MEMdata provides a highly differentiated capital equipment and construction solution with a proven track record of realized savings for its customers. We believe this transaction will strengthen our ability to connect our contracted suppliers with our members to drive innovative solutions and lead generation."

The acquisition is not expected to have a material impact on Premier's fiscal 2014 financial results.

About Premier, Inc.

Premier, Inc. (Nasdaq:PINC) is a leading healthcare improvement company, uniting an alliance of more than 2,900 U.S. hospitals and nearly 100,000 other providers to transform healthcare. With integrated data and analytics, collaboratives, supply chain solutions, and advisory and other services, Premier enables better care and outcomes at a lower cost. Premier, a Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipient, plays a critical role in the rapidly evolving healthcare industry, collaborating with members to co-develop long-term innovations that reinvent and improve the way care is delivered to patients nationwide. Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Premier is passionate about transforming American healthcare. Please visit Premier's news and investor sites on www.premierinc.com; as well as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, Foursquare and Premier's blog for more information about the company.

Forward-looking statements

Matters discussed in this release that are not statements of historical or current facts, such as Premier's ability to integrate MEMdata's product offerings into its suite of solutions and future revenue and cash flow contributions from the acquisition of MEMdata, as discussed herein, are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Premier to be materially different from historical results or from any future results or projections expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on any forward looking statements. In addition to statements that explicitly describe such risks and uncertainties, readers are urged to consider statements in the conditional or future tenses or that includes terms such as "believes," "belief," "expects," "estimates," "intends," "anticipates" or "plans" to be uncertain and forward-looking. Forward-looking statements may include comments as to Premier's beliefs and expectations as to future events and trends affecting its business and are necessarily subject to uncertainties, many of which are outside Premier's control. More information on potential factors that could affect Premier's financial results is included from time to time in the "Forward Looking Statements," "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" sections of Premier's periodic and current filings with the SEC, as well as those discussed under the "Risk Factors" and "Forward Looking Statements" section of Premier's IPO Prospectus, dated September 25, 2013, filed with the SEC and available on Premier's website at investors.premierinc.com. Forward looking statements speak only as of the date they are made. Premier undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise that occur after that date.