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Behavioral Health Provider Ideal Option’s Partnership with Safeway: Reflections on an Entire Industry

On June 1st, “Ideal Option, a national leader in evidence-based medication-assisted treatment [announced that it had] partnered with Safeway, one of the largest grocery retailers in the U.S., to provide services to patients inside the store’s wellness center [in] Vancouver, WA”. “With this partnership, Safeway becomes the first national retailer to complement their in-store pharmacy services with an addiction medicine provider – a bold and progressive move that reflects both a decrease in the stigma traditionally surrounding addiction, and the urgency to counter the surge in substance use during the pandemic”.

Valuation as a Meme

Can we finally put to bed the quaint notion that the stock market is even remotely a barometer of the value of a firm based upon its revenues, profits, growth, and risk-return fundamentals? The newest meme stock is AMC Entertainment. You know, the movie theater chain that in the wake of COVID posted more than $1.8B in losses? The company whose future is very much unclear now that the likes of Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, HBO Max, Disney, and others have made first run premiers at home a thing? Yeah, that AMC.

Almost Haven, Messed Dominion

On January 30th, 2018, the Wall Street Journal reported the formation of what would later be called Haven under the headline, Triple Threat: Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgan Rattle Health-Care Firms “The companies said the venture would be “free from profit-making incentives and constraints” and would develop technological solutions to provide simplified, high quality health care for their hundreds of thousands of U.S. workers, but they offered few other details [emphasis – and foreshadowing – added]” .

Will a Stay Calm and Carry-on Mindset Beat Back Stubborn COVID Headwinds?

Good question. Glad we asked it. No doubt this is a fluid situation. In fact, given what has transpired in just the past week, our answer today could very well go back to the future in 30 days or so (more on that below). But right now? There is evidence – mostly anecdotal at this point – that the M&A world is beginning to awaken from the Big Sleep.