Heska Corporation (NASDAQ: HSKA – News; “Heska” or the “Company”), a leading global provider of advanced veterinary diagnostic and specialty products, announced today that the Company has entered a definitive agreement (the “Agreement”) to acquire 100% of VetZ GmbH (“VetZ”), a European leader in veterinary practice information management software solutions (“PIMS”) (such transaction, the “Acquisition”).
Founded in 1997 and headquartered in Isernhagen, Germany, VetZ has created powerful, easy-to-use and fully integrated software solutions for better workflow, communication, service and patient outcomes. Over the last 25 years, VetZ has established itself as the gold standard practice information management software solution in leading veterinary healthcare institutions. Today, VetZ has more than 70 employees and more than 3,300 veterinary practices – some of the largest in Europe and the world – as customers. VetZ solutions power and connect the full pet healthcare cycle, from pet family communications, boarding, and scheduling to diagnostics (imaging, point of care, reference lab), charting, health records, telemedicine, e-commerce, billing, inventory, fulfillment, analytics, and more.
“We are excited to welcome the wonderful leadership, people, and culture of VetZ into the global Heska family. I have known and admired VetZ and its founders since 2009 and have wanted to make this partnership a reality since then. In my decades in this space, I have not seen another PIMS as powerful; VetZ represents the pinnacle of business logic and capability in veterinary healthcare,” commented Heska’s Chief Executive Officer and President, Kevin Wilson. “Today, Heska enters the PIMS market as a leader with a particularly strong position in our core European market of Germany. We will look to immediately incorporate VetZ PIMS into our subscription offerings to our expanding global base of over 7,000 customers,” continued Mr. Wilson. “With VetZ PIMS, Heska is one of the rarest of breeds – a unified team providing best-in-class, fully integrated solutions and subscriptions for point of care diagnostics, rapids diagnostics, imaging diagnostics, telemedicine specialty services, and reference laboratory offerings. That’s another major milestone met in our strategic plan. Now, we will scale and expand our full capabilities to continue to deliver excellent experiences, value, and results to even more veterinarians, connected partners, pets, and pet families throughout the world.”
VetZ’s Co-Founder and Managing Director, Ingo Fraedrich, commented, “We are thrilled to join the Heska family. I am incredibly proud of the strong business our VetZ team has built over nearly 25 years. We have partnered with our veterinarian friends and partners throughout Europe to better the wellbeing of pets and to optimize vet practices with lasting impact. With this exciting new chapter, we will expand even faster. Heska is the ideal partner to leverage existing world-class VetZ solutions across new geographies. Our easyVet a leading practice management and PACS (picture archival and communications software) solution in Germany and key markets in Europe.
Our vetsXL is the largest business-to-business platform for veterinarian businesses in Germany with more than 10,000 participating practices and industry partners. And petsXL, our next generation animal health application and portal for pet owners, is scaling at remarkable rates to connect tens of thousands of pet family members with their providers and records. Together, these platforms and associated services make VetZ solutions the most comprehensive, all-in-one platform in the market.” VetZ’s other co-founder and Managing Director, Thomas Fraedrich added, “I and the entire VetZ team are excited to join the Heska family and my brother and I are excited to join Heska’s great leadership team – we have known them for many years and we look forward to working even more closely together to scale and invest more to expand the world’s access to our powerful solutions that improve workflow, and communications capabilities and deliver more efficient veterinary healthcare interactions, more care access, and better health and financial outcomes.”
The Acquisition is expected to close in early 2022, subject to the satisfaction or waiver of closing conditions set forth in the Agreement, including customary closing conditions.
