Amazon's Shuttering Its Care Service. Is It Time to Buy Teladoc Stock?
After a few years of experimenting with its own employees, it appears Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) is closing down its telehealth service, Amazon Care, by the end of 2022. Though the U.S. spends over $4 trillion a year on healthcare, disrupting this massive sector of the economy is incredibly difficult. For example, Amazon has already had other failures in this space -- like healthcare start-up Haven, which was also backed by JPMorgan Chase and Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway.
With Care closing, it appears Amazon will attempt a different angle. It's still in the process of acquiring 1Life Healthcare (NASDAQ: ONEM), the parent company of primary care clinic chain One Medical. Amazon is also reportedly interested in bidding on analytics and healthcare payments platform provider Signify Health. Amid this suddenly convoluted strategy to retool at Amazon, telehealth leader Teladoc Health (NYSE: TDOC) is beaten up but still standing. Is it time to buy Teladoc?
I must first confess I was wrong about Teladoc, at least in the last year or two. I bought my first batch of shares back in 2017 and was pleased for a few years that I had gotten in early in a compelling growth story within the healthcare technology space. Then 2020 happened and virtual at-home care suddenly went mainstream. Teladoc stock exploded higher, and then it used its strength to acquire digital chronic care company Livongo Health. I applauded the deal, but it's been all downhill since then. Teladoc realized a $3 billion goodwill impairment charge in Q2 2022 associated with the acquisition. In other words, Teladoc overpaid for Livongo.
Source Fool.com
