Dive Brief:
- Oracle is planning to move its headquarters to Nashville, Tennessee to be closer to healthcare sector giants.
- “It’s the center of the industry we’re most concerned about, which is the healthcare industry,” Chairman and Chief Technology Officer Larry Ellison said Tuesday during a conversation with former Sen. Bill Frist at an Oracle Health event.
- The technology company significantly expanded its presence in healthcare with its more than $28 billion purchase of electronic health record vendor Cerner in 2022. The segment has lately been a headwind for the company, but executives say it will return to growth next year.
Dive Insight:
Oracle’s move would be the second time it’s relocated headquarters in recent years. Oracle is currently based in Austin, Texas, where it announced it would move at the tail-end of 2020 after decades in Silicon Valley.
The transition to Nashville would place Oracle among other healthcare companies like HCA Healthcare, one of the largest for-profit hospital operators in the country.
Other major providers like Community Health Systems and LifePoint Health are based outside the city, while Change Healthcare — the UnitedHealth-owned technology company currently recovering from a major cyberattack — is headquartered in Nashville.
The planned move comes as Cerner faces challenges. During a recent earnings call, CEO Safra Catz noted that the unit had been a “significant headwind” this year, but it would return to growth next year.
The company has been moving Cerner customers to the cloud, which executives said would save money and improve data security — though transitioning from licensed purchases to cloud subscriptions means less revenue upfront and more cash rolling in over time.
Oracle is also managing a rocky EHR rollout at the Department of Veterans Affairs, and it faces significant competition from market leader Epic. While Oracle has won many small hospitals, it lost market share with large facilities, a June report from Klas Research found.
Rebecca Pifer