Amazon to acquire One Medical clinics in latest push into health care.

Amazon said on Thursday that it had reached a deal to acquire One Medical, a network of primary care clinics, in a deal worth $3.9 billion, a big step in the e-commerce giant’s plans to become a major player in the health care industry.

One Medical, which is based in San Francisco, operates a network of primary care providers that provide in-office and virtual medical services.

Amazon will acquire the company for $18 per share in an all-cash transaction, it said in a statement. The deal will require approval from One Medical’s shareholders and regulators.

“We think health care is high on the list of experiences that need reinvention,” Neil Lindsay, the senior vice president of Amazon Health Services, said in the statement.

One Medical, a former Silicon Valley “unicorn,” a term for a start-up valued by investors at $1 billion or more, went public in 2020 at $22.07 a share. After hitting a peak of $58.70 last year, its stock price closed on Wednesday at $10.18.

“We look forward to innovating and expanding access to quality healthcare services, together,” said One Medical’s chief executive, Amir Dan Rubin, who will remain in his post after the deal closes.

Amazon has made a series of moves into health care recently. In 2019, it reportedly spent about $1 billion to buy the start-up PillPack, an online pharmacy, in an effort grab a piece of the $560 billion prescription drug industry.