Amazon, UnitedHealth among bidders for Signify Health – Bloomberg

(Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc, UnitedHealth Group Inc and CVS Health Corp are bidding separately for home health services provider Signify Health Inc, Bloomberg News reported on Sunday, citing people with knowledge of the matter.

Amazon’s reported interest is the latest sign of the e-retailer’s ambitions in healthcare, and comes a month after it agreed to buy One Medical, which operates brick-and-mortar doctor’s offices and offers telehealth services, for $3.49 billion.

UnitedHealth has submitted the highest bid for Signify, in excess of $30 a share, while Amazon’s offer is close behind, Bloomberg reported.

Dallas, Texas-based Signify’s shares surged 36.8% to $29 in premarket trading on Monday. At those levels, the company would have a market capitalization of $6.8 billion.

Signify will hold a board meeting on Monday to discuss the bids, and final bids are expected by Sept. 6, Bloomberg said.

Option Care Health Inc, which provides home health services, is also among the bidders, Bloomberg reported.

Signify conducts at-home health evaluations, and its customers include health insurers, government and private employers, hospital operators and physician groups.

The Wall Street Journal also reported on Sunday that Amazon was bidding for Signify and that Signify was up for sale in an auction that could value it at well over $8 billion.

Amazon said it does not comment on speculation, and so did UnitedHealth. The other companies did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment on Sunday.

Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal reported CVS was seeking to buy Signify as it looked to expand in-home health services.

(Reporting by Juby Babu and Manas Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Christopher Cushing, Deepa Babington, Lincoln Feast and Shinjini Ganguli)