Cerner completes $1.3 billion buy of Siemens

Cerner Corp. president Zane Burke waited Monday morning for a wire transfer to confirm that the deal was done — that Siemens Health Services was now Cerner. The transfer signaled that Cerner's $1.3 billion cash acquisition was complete. "It gets us to where analysts estimate we're at $4.8 billion to $5 billion," Burke said of the company's expected combined annual revenues. The acquisition, announced in August and approved by regulators in the fall, was cemented Monday. Burke said it vaults Kansas City-based Cerner further into position as the market leader in providing health care information technology to physicians' offices, hospitals, home health agencies, pharmacies and employer organizations.