'Oracle in talks to buy $30-billion Cerner'

Enterprise software maker Oracle is in talks to buy electronic medical records company Cerner in a deal that could be valued at $30 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The transaction could bring Oracle a raft of health data to train and improve its artificial intelligence-based cloud services, boosting its presence in the healthcare sector.

If the deal materializes, it will be the biggest ever for Oracle, which has a market value of more than $280 billion, the WSJ report said, adding that the Oracle-Cerner deal could become one of the largest takeovers of 2021.

Cerner is the biggest seller of electronic health record software in the United States after Epic Systems Corp. In 2019, it had named Amazon Web Services as its preferred cloud provider and said the two companies were collaborating on AI services for health companies.

Oracle and Cerner did not immediately respond to Reuters` request for comment.