Acquisition of pharmaceutical information group by Wolters Kluwer Health.

Wolters Kluwer (Amsterdam/New York), a multinational publisher and information services company, has acquired the information management business of NDCHealth Corporation (Phoenix, AZ), a provider of healthcare information solutions, for $382 million in cash, a multiple of 2.3 times revenue and 10.5 times adjusted EBITDA.

NDC-IM is expected to have revenues of approximately $165 million and adjusted EBITDA1 of $36 million in calendar year 2005. Wolters Kluwer said the deal is expected to be accretive to ordinary earnings per share in 2006 by approximately 3 euro cents and strengthens its position in the pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical device market by expanding its business intelligence offerings. NDC-IM will be part of Wolters Kluwer Health's Pharma Solutions (New York) unit.

NDC-IM is a provider of data and business intelligence products, including products for sales compensation and targeting, market and marketing research, managed care, and outcomes analysis. In addition to its position in physician-level data products, NDC-IM has also entered the market for primary source transactional prescription data. NDC-IM clients include providers in the pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical devices industries.

The transaction is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2005. Wolters Kluwer CEO and Executive Board Chairman Nancy McKinstry said, "As part of our strategic focus, we've indicated plans to grow our Health business and specifically within the pharmaceutical and biotech markets, where we see significant potential for growth. This acquisition enables us to take a leading position in providing solutions and tools that improve decision-making for our customers."

"The pharmaceutical industry is highly dependent upon analytical data products to optimize their strategies and investments," said Jeff McCaulley, CEO of Wolters Kluwer Health. "Adding NDC-IM's product portfolio to our core business intelligence products in drug discovery and development gives us a comprehensive suite of value-added content offerings to help our customers be more successful in their markets."

The acquisition of NDC-IM is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter. The other businesses of NDCHealth will be acquired by Per-Se Technologies Inc. (Alpharetta, GA). The completion of Wolters Kluwer's NDC-IM acquisition is conditioned on approval by the NDCHealth shareholders for the Wolters Kluwer/NDCHealth and Per-Se/NDCHealth agreements, and approval by the Per-Se Technologies shareholders for the Per-Se/NDCHealth agreement.