Telas, Canada’s second-largest telco owner, has agreed to acquire wellness firm Lifeworks in a transaction worth CAD2.9 billion (US $ 2.3 billion), the companies announced. Telus says the addition of LifeWorks to new digital health solutions enhances “high quality access, active healthcare and mental well-being for employees”. Telus said it would buy LifeWorks for $ 33 per share in Lifeworks or $ 2.3 billion, with an estimated net debt of $ 600 million.
For Telus President and CEO Darren Entwistle, the acquisition of LifeWorks is bigger than Canadian healthcare. He sees it as a global positional move to take Teles out of telecommunications.
“Today’s announcement will enable us to combine the respective skills and capabilities of LifeWorks and Telus Health, creating a global leading, end-to-end, digital-first employee resilience and mental health and wellness platform covering more than 50 million lives.”
Telus Mobility is the second largest mobile carrier in Canada after Rogers. The company has 9.3 million customers. Lifeworks is based in Toronto, the former Mourinho Sheppel – the company acquired Lifeworks and rebranded in a series of mergers and acquisitions in the medium term.
The draw for Telus Health is the benefits of Lifeworks’ Employees and Family Support Program (EFAP) and administrative capacity, Telus said. LifeWorks operates a cloud-based platform that provides confidential and professional support to enterprise workers from licensed social workers, psychologists and professionally trained human service workers. LifeWorks supports a global network with support for more than 40 languages.
With Telus coming out of its fiscal 2021 earlier this year, Entwistle talked about the differences in his company and focused on what he described as “high-growth, technology-based verticals”, including its expanding role in health and wellness.
“At Telus Health, our team continues to double-digit growth in healthcare revenue for both quarterly and year-over-year, as well as achieving significant milestones as we continue to scale our health activities in a meaningful way,” Entwistle told Time.
“These include our healthcare activities covering more than 20 million lives, an increase of about 22 percent per year, realizing more than 550 million digital health transactions in 2021 and gaining more than one million new virtual healthcare members, representing a 65 percent increase over the previous year. , ”He added.
Telus shows no signs of slowing down its nationwide 5G buildout. The company announced in January that its 5G network had already reached 70% of Canada’s population. It said it has committed $ 43 billion in infrastructure investment by 2024 and has 744 urban and rural communities in its 5G network, 129 more than initially planned for the full year 2021.
Telus said its 5G network now reaches 245 communities in British Columbia, 245 communities in Quebec, 151 communities in Alberta, 105 communities in Ontario, 27 communities in Atlantic Canada and 14 communities in Manitoba.
Telus switched to 5G devices made by Ericsson and Nokia in 2020. After previously announcing plans to support its 5G buildout with Huawei devices, authorities in the United States banned Huawei Gear due to security concerns.
