Is IBM is letting go of the healthcare space?

IBM has been making some significant changes in its business, and it looks like the healthcare space may be taking a hit. According to recent reports, IBM sells its Watson Health business to Francisco Partners. This move signals a shift in IBM's priorities, focusing more on cloud and AI businesses. The Watson Health unit has been struggling for some time now, so this sale may not come as a surprise to many people.

Francisco Partners aims to establish a newly independent firm with these assets. Given the division's underperformance in a somewhat unexpected move, the company intends to keep the same management team in place for at least the near term.

Francisco Partners has significant expertise in the healthcare IT industry. Its healthcare investment portfolio has concentrated on firms that are applying technology to revolutionize the healthcare space by delivering innovative products and services to patients, providers, payers, pharma, life sciences, and governments. Current and past investments in the sector include Availity, eSolutions, eSolutions, Capsule, GoodRx, Landmark, QGenda, Trellis, and Zocdoc.

This will be an interesting watch to see whether there are any synergies between the Watson health technology and the rest of Francisco's healthcare solutions. It's possible that combining Watson with other products may be a winning combination.