Database giant Oracle Corp. is reportedly in advanced discussions to buy the electronic medical records firm Cerner Corp. for about $30 billion, which would be the largest acquisition in Oracle’s history and extend its already deep push into the healthcare industry.

The Wall Street Journal late today cited people familiar with the matter as saying a deal could be hammered out soon, assuming that the talks don’t break down or drag on for too long.

Based in Kansas City, Missouri, Cerner sells software used by hospitals to store and analyze medical records and related data. It competes with companies such as Athenahealth Inc. and Epic Systems Corp. Although it’s not so widely known, Cerner has a market value of about $23 billion, though Oracle would need to pay a typical takeover premium in order to acquire it.

Cerner recently scored a coup when it hired David Feinberg as its new chief executive in August. Feinberg is a former Alphabet Inc. executive who led Google Cloud’s push into healthcare, striking partnerships with some of the largest hospitals in the U.S. to collect and analyze their medical data.

The Journal says acquiring Cerner would help Oracle with its own renewed push into cloud computing. Oracle, which was founded by its Executive Chairman and Chief Technology Officer Larry Ellison (pictured), recently saw its stock hit an all-time high, with its market value surpassing $280 billion in the wake of strong second-quarter financial results. The company has been firmly focused on building up its cloud computing business after an initial slow start in which it lagged behind rivals such as Amazon Web Services Inc., Google LLC and Microsoft Corp.

As Wikibon analyst Dave Vellante explained this month, Oracle’s recent success is the result of a highly differentiated strategy that has evolved over the past decade or more: deeply integrating its hardware and software, heavily investing in next generation cloud and creating a homogeneous experience across its application portfolio.

Moor Insights & Strategy analyst Patrick Moorhead told SiliconANGLE that Oracle has seen huge success with its enterprise sofware-as-a-service applications, which cut across business functions such as finance, human resources, marketing, operations and sales. “Acquiring Cerner would provide another layer of strength for Oracle, vertically, in the healthcare industry,” he said.

Oracle boasts a significant presence in healthcare already, with multiple health insurance providers, healthcare firms and public health systems using its tools to parse data, improve efficiency and boost patient outcomes.

“Oracle has made significant investments in the healthcare space, starting with early efforts such as its Healthcare Transaction Base (HTB), and it also has a naturally strong position as a secure system of record for healthcare providers, said Holger Mueller, an analyst with Constellation Research Inc. “Buying Cerner would allow Oracle to tap more into the fastest-growing segment of the US economy, and provide a lot of growth potentiation for its products, not too mention massive economies of scale to Oracle Cloud.”

Should the deal go ahead, it would easily surpass Oracle’s largest acquisition so far – its $10 billion purchase of PeopleSoft Inc. in 2005. More recently, in 2016, Oracle bought the cloud software provider NetSuite Inc. for $9 billion.

Indeed, Oracle certainly isn’t afraid to get its checkbook out again. The company last year showed interest in acquiring the social media app TikTok from its Chinese parent firm ByteDance Ltd., and reportedly outbid rival Microsoft’s $30 billion offer. Later, Oracle settled for buying a 20% stake in TikTok’s U.S. business.

Photo: SiliconANGLE