Walgreens, Microsoft team up in massive health care deal
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Amazon isn’t the only tech giant pushing its way into the health care and cloud sectors.
On Tuesday, Microsoft announced it signed a multiyear partnership with Walgreens Boots Alliance in an effort to transform "health care delivery."
Under the terms of the 7-year deal, Microsoft will become Walgreen’s main cloud provider, while the drugstore owner will migrate most of its infrastructure onto Microsoft Azure.
What’s more, Walgreens said it will also roll out Microsoft 365 to its more than 380,000 employees globally.
The main objective, according to a joint statement, is to create innovative platforms that "enable next-generation health networks, integrated digital-physical experiences and care management solutions."
"Improving health outcomes while lowering the cost of care is a complex challenge that requires broad collaboration and strong partnership between the health care and tech industries," Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in the release.
Additionally, Walgreens said it plans to pilot up to 12 store-in-store "digital health corners" aimed at the merchandising and sale of select health care-related hardware and devices.
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Shares for both Microsoft and Walgreens are up slightly on the news.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WBA | WALGREENS BOOTS ALLIANCE INC. | 9.06 | +0.33 | +3.78% |
| MSFT | MICROSOFT CORP. | 422.99 | -5.00 | -1.17% |
Microsoft has also recently signed cloud partnerships with other big retailers such as Gap, Kroger and Walmart.
The deal, however, still pales in comparison to Amazon’s massive health care partnership announced last year with Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan. The three giants said they were partnering to create an independent company aimed at lowering health care costs for their U.S. employees. No further details of the partnership have been released.