NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- General Electric Co. will pay $1.2 billion to acquire IDX Systems Corp., a healthcare technology vendor, the companies said Thursday.
GE Healthcare (GE: news, chart, profile) will pay $44 a share in cash for IDX's 31.2 million shares, a premium of about 25% to IDX's closing price Wednesday of $35.17.
The price tag comes to $1.2 billion after accounting for cash and other equivalents at Burlington, Vt.-based IDX (IDXC: news, chart, profile) .
Shares of GE, a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, fell 22 cents early Thursday to $33.27 while shares of IDX soared more than $8 to to $43.21.
The deal, expected to close in early 2006, will create a vendor for data handling for hospitals, clinics and doctor's offices, GE said. IDX specializes in IT in areas such as computerized physician order entry and medication barcode charting.
The companies said shareholders representing 20% of IDX stock have agreed to tender their shares in favor of the merger.
"IDX has grown substantially in recent years and we believe our opportunities for continued growth and expansion will be best realized through the additional scale and resources that a company like GE can provide," said Jim Crook, IDX chief executive.