8K Miles eyes more acquisitions to cash in on Obamacare boom

On the back of three successful acquisitions in health and pharma space in past six months, pure-play cloud player 8K Miles Software is looking at more buyouts in the same area as it seems a huge opportunity in the US following the legal mandate to Obamacare.
"The recent Supreme Court order legalising Obamacare across the US is a big boost to cloud players like us.
"Accordingly, to cash in on the likely boom in this space, we are keen on more acquisitions in the technology side of the healthcare and pharma markets," Suresh Venkatachari, founder- chairman of the Silicon Valley-based company told PTI from its headquarters.

He further said that going forward the focus will be healthcare and pharma sectors as the company sees strong opportunity in the cloud market, which is getting matured -- Amazon reported USD 5 billion from cloud last year and so is Microsoft, whose cloud business is also jumping -- and growth could be through both organic or inorganic routes.
When asked about funding side, he said all the past three acquisitions were not funded by debt.
"But having said that if a good deal comes by, we will not mind a debt-funded deal," he said, adding that there is good cash flow now and no debt on the books of 8K Miles now.

The company has Rs 20 crore cash in hand now.

It can be noted that in April, 8K Miles, which is the only listed cloud computing company in the country, acquired Cintel Systems of the US, which develops user interfaces for desktops, mobile and tablets across a wide range of industry segments with a focus on healthcare providers, for USD 3.75 million in a cash and stock deal.
In March, it acquired Mindprint, the Canadian clinical research software startup, for USD 4,00,000 to strengthen its presence in the pharmaceutical vertical.
Late last year, it also took over SERJ Solutions, a company into EHR consulting, managed services and custom application development for healthcare providers.

8K Miles counts Amazon, HP Microsoft and other tech biggies as clients and is also ramping up its senior management personnel to cash in on Obamacare boom.
Accordingly, Venkatachari said the company has hired two senior healthcare specialists from General Electric.