Increasingly healthy Merge Healthcare acquires Confirma

MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin — The health information technology company Merge Healthcare made its second acquisition in as many months by acquiring Confirma and betting it can leverage the Seattle company’s expertise in computer assisted detection for imaging.

Merge will pay an estimated $22 million in its common stock. The transaction is expected to be completed in September.

Merge believes it can expand the adoption of Confirma’s computer assisted detection technology, which currently focuses on breast, liver and prostate imaging. Initially, Merge will incorporate Confirma’s breast imaging technology with its own, but expand the use of computer assisted detection into clinical trials and expand its use “to bring additional efficiency to established markets where imaging costs are under fire,” Justin Dearborn, Merge’s chief executive officer, stated in a release.

In June, Merge announced its plans to acquire the North Carolina clinical trials software company etrials Worldwide, which it completed in mid-July. Less than two weeks ago Merge reported second-quarter results in which it eked out a net income of $400,000 — an improvement over the $18.2 million loss over the same period last year. The company called its operating income of $4.1 million the best results in three years.