Billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong’s tech holding company NantWorks has agreed to buy Alcatel-Lucent’s digital multimedia business.
Terms of the deal with the French telecom equipment maker were not disclosed. The DMS unit develops technology for television, new media, digital advertising, retailing services, and health applications. NantWorks plans to use the technologies to advance its mobile health and image recognition services businesses.
“Imagine the power of a supercomputer in the palm of your hands, for both patient and provider,” Soon-Shiong said in a statement. “With the rigorous robustness and proven scalability of the Alcatel-Lucent platform, we now have the capability to work with our telecom partners to provide the most advanced, sophisticated, 21st century health care directly to the patient on a global basis.”
As part of the deal, NantWorks has opened up a research and development center in Haifa, Israel, where the Alcatel-Lucent unit has its roots.