WebMD acquires French medical news and information platform Jim.fr – TechCrunch

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Health information publishing giant WebMD has announced that it will acquire Jim.fr, a French-language medical news and information website aimed at healthcare professionals (HCPs). Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

It was founded in 1979 International Journal of Medicine (Jim) By a young hospital intern named Dr. Gilles Haroche, Paris-based Jim.fr provides and presents all kinds of news, reports and research from the world of medicine, including new developments and treatments, op-eds, analysis. and profiles of key figures from the global health sphere.

Jim.fr was published exclusively online in 1999 and today has reached 350,000 subscribers, with Dr. Haroche continuing as editorial director 40 years after its founding.

Healthy growth

WebMD, on the other hand, was founded in 1996 in the United States and has become the leading information provider for health, medicine and safety with about 130 million monthly visits. WebMD itself was bought by KKR Internet Brands five years ago for $2.8 billion, and in the intervening years it has expanded its geographic and language footprint in the US and beyond, acquiring smaller local rivals such as Benelux Mediquality in 2018; German colloquium in 2020; And the UK MGP just last year.

Therefore, acquisitions have historically played an important role in WebMD’s international and vertical expansion, and it is a strategy that is clearly continuing as the company expands into the French market, where it is already present.

While WebMD is a brand familiar to anyone looking online for information about diseases and disorders, the publication targets a broad audience in the consumer and professional sectors. That includes HCPs, which MedScope acquired at the turn of the century for $10 million and already has a French version that says it reaches 5 million physicians worldwide. Jim.fr essentially strengthens WebMD’s existing reach and capabilities in that market.

“Both Jim.fr and Medscape are trusted and engaged by hundreds of thousands of healthcare professionals in France,” Jeremy Schneider, general manager of the WebMD Global Group, said in a press release. “Through this transaction, we will be able to leverage our combined assets to further strengthen Medscape’s offering to French and French-speaking professionals, delivering innovative solutions to clients.”

After the acquisition, Jim.fr will operate as a subsidiary of Mescape with plans to integrate services from their respective platforms.

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