IBM's Watson Health Completes Truven Health Analytics Acquisition

International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) disclosed that its Watson Health unit has completed the acquisition of Truven Health Analytics for $2.6 billion. In a statement, the company indicated the cloud-based healthcare data provider has brought in over 8,500 clients to its Watson Health portfolio. That included federal, as well as, state government agencies, health plans, hospitals, life science firms and employers.

IBM said after the completion, both the firms scientists would commence the process of using cognitive capabilities of its Watson Health to drive insights from the acquired firm's health data.

According to the company, IBM gains extensive data from Truven spanning cost, claims, quality and outcomes information. The tech firm expects its healthcare organizations to tap into the cloud-powered data to take disparate data sets to create unique insights to inform a wider range of health decisions.

The latest is a fourth big health data-related acquisition for IBM after unveiling Watson Health in April 2015.

On Thursday, IBM Shares lost 1.21 percent.