UNITED
STATES
SECURITIES
AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington,
D.C. 20549
SCHEDULE
14D-9
Solicitation/Recommendation
Statement under Section 14(d)(4)
of
the Securities Exchange Act of 1934
I-TRAX,
INC.
(Name
of Subject Company)
I-TRAX,
INC.
(Names
of Persons Filing Statement)
COMMON
STOCK, PAR VALUE $0.001 PER SHARE
SERIES A CONVERTIBLE PREFERRED STOCK,
PAR VALUE $0.001 PER SHARE
(Title
of Class of Securities)
COMMON
STOCK CUSIP 45069D203
(CUSIP
Number of Class of Securities)
Yuri
Rozenfeld, Esq.
Senior
Vice President and General Counsel
I-trax,
Inc.
4
Hillman Drive, Suite 130
Chadds
Ford, Pennsylvania 19317
(610)
459-2405 x116
(Name,
address, and telephone number of person authorized to receive
notices
and communications on behalf of the persons filing statement)
WITH
COPIES TO:
Justin
P. Klein, Esq.
Ballard
Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP
1735
Market Street, 51
st
Floor
Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania 19103
215-665-8500
þ
|
Check
the box if the filing relates solely to preliminary communications made
before the commencement of a tender
offer.
|
I-trax
made the following communications, which are included at the corresponding
annexes:
I-Trax
Moderator:
Hope Van Dyke (ph)
March
17, 2008
4:00
p.m. ET
OPERATOR: Good
afternoon ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to your I-trax investors’ conference
call. All lines have been placed on a listen-only mode and the floor
will be open for your questions and comments following the presentation and if
you should require assistance throughout the call, please press star,
zero.
At this
time, it is my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host, Hope Van Dyke
(ph). Ma’am, the floor is yours.
HOPE VAN
DYKE (ph): Good afternoon, and thank you for your
time. Before beginning the call, I’d like to read the Safe Harbor
Statement. This conference call will contain forward-looking
statements within the meaning of Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995. Forward-looking statements describe what we anticipate,
believe, expect or intend in the future. Forward-looking statements
are subject to risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to
differ, possibly materially, from what we now anticipate.
Please
refer to our most recent annual report on Form 10-K and the quarterly report on
Form 10-Q for further information. These reports are on file with the
Securities and Exchange Commission.
Additionally,
there can be no assurance that the merger will be consummated. With
that, I’ll turn the call over to Frank Martin.
FRANK
MARTIN: Good afternoon, everyone and thanks for joining
us.
Today,
I’m very pleased to share with you this exciting development in the evolution of
workplace healthcare delivery. Walgreen’s Company and I-trax, the
parent of CHD Meridian and ProFitness Healthcare Solutions has signed a
definitive agreement for Walgreen’s to acquire I-trax for approximately $278
million including the assumption of certain debt, which equates to a share price
of $5.40 per share.
Walgreen’s,
in addition to operating more than 6,000 retail pharmacies in 49 states is the
parent company of Take Care Health Systems, operators of Take Care Clinics
located within the Walgreen’s Pharmacies.
This is a
strategic, significant growth event for Walgreen’s and for our
industry. In addition to acquiring I-trax, Walgreen’s is also
acquiring Whole Health Management, a top provider in our industry. We
will be combining with Whole Health to from what will be by far the nation’s
leading provider of work place health services. This is clearly a
major transformational event for Walgreen’s and for us. It is the
beginning of an important new strategy for Walgreen’s moving from being a large
retail pharmacy chain to a health services delivery company, and we’re going to
play a very important role this transformation.
I-trax
and CHD Meridian Healthcare will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Walgreen’s
and part of a newly formed division, along with Take Care Health Systems and
Whole Health Management, focused on delivering high quality healthcare
conveniently. It’ll be called the Health and Wellness
Division. But even as we make this transition and become part of the
new division, our dedication to clinical excellence, client and patient
satisfaction and demonstrating value will remain unchanged. In fact,
this merger will allow us to enhance and expand our capabilities and access
points so that we can serve all employees, whether they are proximate to the
work site or not when, where and how the employer or employee
chooses.
As you
know, we’ve been pursuing a number of strategic opportunities to consider or to
continue growing our business. These strategies have included making
acquisitions, including our recent merger with ProFitness Health Solutions and
talking with potential partners to create new alliances.
Walgreen’s
and Take Care Health Systems approached us because they recognize the workplace
is an advantage delivery channel for patient engagement and quality
healthcare. For CHD Meridian Healthcare and ProFitness
Health
Solutions, it is the recognition of the importance of workplace healthcare and
the tangible benefits that can be driven through effective onsite medical,
pharmacy, fitness and wellness programs.
All of
the organizations involved in this transition are passionately committed to
convenient, acceptable, clinically excellent care through all delivery channels,
including the workplace and now retail settings.
We
decided to enter into this agreement because of that shared passion and because
we know that it will give us access to tools and resources that will allow us to
grow and support our care model and our expansion of
services. Furthermore, we believe this merger is in the best interest
of our stockholders.
We
recognize that today’s announcement will raise many questions, and while we have
much work ahead of us to integrate these organizations, we firmly believe that
bringing these companies together is a growth strategy, not a cost cutting
strategy for any parties involved and it is an opportunity to create a truly
exciting new model in healthcare delivery for employers and their employees and
dependents.
Today’s
announcement will not have any immediate effects on the daily operations of any
of our health centers, fitness centers or pharmacies. All of the
organizations involved will work together to evaluate how best to merge and
combine administrative and management operations to create the strongest
provider of integrated healthcare for an employer’s proximate and non-proximate
employees using all channels and avenues available continuing to prove that a
healthy work force is a competitive advantage.
Walgreen’s
will be filing their tender offer documents with the SEC within the next 10
days. We will also be filing our 14D-9, which will provide a detailed
background of the merger, but I’ll give you a brief description of the tender
offer. It’ll be commenced within 10 business days of the announcement
of the deal, which is today. It will remain open for at least 20
business days, which is approximately 30 calendar days, and it can be extended
at the option of the buyer, but not beyond September 30
th
of
2008. It must be extended as significant terms
change. It’ll be for any and all shares of our common and preferred
stock at a price of $5.40 per share of common stock net to the shareholder at a
price of $54 per share preferred stock, plus accrued dividends, and the dividend
valuation will be based on the trading price of the stock during the 10 days
prior to this announcement. Shareholders may withdraw their shares
tendered up until the tender time offer expires – can only close if more than 50
percent of the shares are tendered, the buyer will accept for payment all shares
tendered and not withdrawn promptly after the expiration of the tender
offer.
The buyer
cannot change the terms of the tender, offer to reduce the price, change the
form of consideration, reduce the number of shares sought or impose any
additional conditions on the offer without company approval.
The buyer
is seeking to buy all shares of common and preferred stock. If 80
percent of the shares are tendered, the company has granted the buyer an option
to purchase an additional 10 percent of the stock from the company so that the
buyer has 90 percent, and if the buyer has 90 percent of the common and
preferred stock, then the merger can take place without a meeting and a vote of
the shareholders.
So, in
conclusion, we hope that you share our excitement for this
transaction. We are extremely excited about the additional resources
this alliance will provide and the new model that can be created for healthcare
delivery. We believe the valuation of Walgreen’s has placed on this
transaction is representative of the future opportunity that we have
created.
We thank
you for your support over the last several years, especially those of you who
have been with us since the beginning and have held on through difficult
years. We consider this offer the reward for all of yours and our
efforts and persistence. And I’m not happy to open the line for
questions.
OPERATOR: Thank
you.
Ladies
and gentlemen, the floor is now open for questions.
If you do
have a question, please press star, one on your telephone keypad at this
time. Questions will be taken in the order that they are
received. If you are on a speakerphone, we ask that while posing your
question, you pick up the handset to provide favorable sound quality and if at
any time your questions has been answered, you may remove yourself from the
queue by pressing the pound sign.
Again,
ladies and gentlemen, if you do have a question or comment, please press star,
one on your telephone keypad at this time.
Please
hold while we poll for questions.
And we
have our first question coming from Brooks O’Neil (ph) from the company
Dougherty. Please state your question.
DEPOCK
CHALEGAN (ph), DOUGHERTY: Thanks for taking my question.
Good
afternoon. This is Depock Chalegan (ph) sitting in for Brooks O’Neil
(ph).
I just
had a question on the bidding process. Were there any other bidders
other than Walgreen’s that you had during this process?
FRANK
MARTIN: Well, Depock (ph), over the last several months, we’ve had
conversations with a number of interested parties, both strategic and
financial. Walgreen’s was the only one that made a formal
offer. Our board felt that it was an extremely fair price and that
Walgreen’s strategy was excited and we’re recommending acceptance of the
offer. There is a fiduciary out in the merger agreement and a
reasonable breakup fee and if someone were to make another proposal during the
tender offer period, we would, if permitted by our agreement with Walgreen’s,
consider it appropriately.
DEPOCK
CHALEGAN (ph): Thanks.
Also in
terms of tendering shares for shareholders, when is management expected to
tender their shares?
FRANK
MARTIN: Promptly.
Management
is recommending the transaction so management will tender their shares
promptly.
DEPOCK
CHALEGAN (ph): OK, well thank you. I think this is a great
deal for both I-trax and Walgreen’s and congratulations on the
deal.
FRANK
MARTIN: Thank you, Depock (ph), and tell Brooks (ph) that we said
sorry he’s on vacation today.
DEPOCK
CHALEGAN (ph): I think he’s going to be sad that he missed it, but
I’ll tell him when he gets back.
FRANK
MARTIN: Thanks.
OPERATOR: And
our next questions comes from Colen Pipeler (ph) from Econic
(ph). Please state your question, sir.
COLEN
PIPELER (ph), ECONIC: Yes, Colen Pipeler (ph). I just
wanted to know for existing shareholders how will they be notified and what is
the mechanism for responding to the tender?
FRANK
MARTIN: Colen (ph), I would say that once the tender offering is
filed with the SEC, you’ll be contacted by mail if you’re a certificate holder,
through your brokerage firm if you’re in street name. There will be
instructions at that time. Copies of the tender offer as well as the
background of the transaction will be available in those documents, but if you
haven’t tendered shares before, typically you’ll get a letter in the mail and
there’ll be notice sent to brokerage firms.
COLEN
PIPELER (ph): OK, thank you.
OPERATOR: Our
next question comes from Karen Griffith (ph) from Intel. Please state
your question or comment.
KAREN
GRIFFITH (ph), INTEL: Yes, I was just wondering how CHD’s actual
workplace industry program will be affected. For example, do you see
transition in how the program will be delivered for maybe your information
systems or how you currently deliver the program to current and future
companies?
FRANK
MARTIN: Well, I would say that right now I think Walgreen’s, as I
mentioned earlier, is looking to us and to Whole Health as platform company,
part of a platform with us, Whole Health and Take Care to combine and create a
best of breed model, both around products and services and delivery
modalities. So, we would see absolutely no reduction of
service. Hopefully, a transition over time – well, not hopefully –
but a transition over time onto a common technology platform so that we can
share information both at the workplace and out in the retail clinic environment
and I think Walgreen’s is looking to be able to enhance the services at the
retail clinics because of the programs that both us and Whole Health provide
and, likewise, whatever value and benefits we can gain from their programs from
many technology and support we would be able to bring into the
workplace.
KAREN
GRIFFITH (ph): Thank you.
OPERATOR: And
our next question comes from Balagy Gandhi (ph) from
Oppenheimer. Please state your question.
BALAGY
GANDHI (ph), OPPENHEIMER: Good afternoon,
guys. Congratulations.
FRANK
MARTIN: Thanks, Balagy (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED
PARTICIPANT: Thanks, Balagy (ph).
BALAGY
GANDHI (ph): This might be a little early to ask this question, but I
thought I’d give it a shot. With the relationship you guys have with
Mackestin (ph), I mean with so many different organizations coming into this new
– you know – operating segment, do you think that’ll kind of serve as the – I
mean your relationship with Mackestin (ph) will kind of be sustained through the
new organization?
FRANK
MARTIN: I think it is a little early to answer that
question. Exactly. I think – you know – the benefit here
is we want to – or I guess let’s say the goal is to do the best thing for the
customer and whatever the best thing for the customer is we’re ultimately going
to do, but it is too early to answer that question.
BALAGY
GANDHI (ph): OK. Well, thought I’d ask
anyway. Take care, guys.
FRANK
MARTIN: Thanks, Balagy (ph).
OPERATOR: Again,
ladies and gentlemen, if you do have a question or comment, please press star,
one on your telephone keypad at this time?
And our
next question comes from Hugh Colen (ph) from Applied
Financial. Please state your question.
HUGH
COLEN (ph), APPLIED FINANCIAL: Hi, guys. I’ve been a
long-term investor in this and – you know – you mentioned in your statement a
lot of us, but there really isn’t an us anymore. It sounds to me like
– you know – we’ve been basically cut out of the growth of this
deal. You know – how do you respond to something like
that?
FRANK
MARTIN: I would respond the following way. Our board
seriously considered this transaction and the price that was being offered in
this transaction and we looked at lots of different valuation methodologies,
including developing a what we would call an aggressive five year strategic plan
and looking at the execution risk with regards to implementing that plan and I
think we came to the conclusion that this was the right thing for us to do to
grow the business.
When we
look at a competitive landscape, including Walgreen’s and Whole Health as
competitors, looking at valuations in the small cap market and we felt that this
was a clearing price, a very good premium for the shareholders and that it was
the right thing to do in everybody’s interests.
And I
would tell you if you feel like you’ve lost us, I think Walgreen’s is creating a
transformational event and there may be more up-sizing.
HUGH
COLEN (ph): Thank you.
OPERATOR: Again,
ladies and gentlemen, if you do have a question or comment, please press star,
one on your telephone keypad at this time.
Sir,
there appear to be no further questions.
FRANK
MARTIN: Well, we’d like to thank you all very much for tuning
in. We hope you’re as excited as we are about this
proposal. We’re certainly available to answer
questions. If you have questions in the future, feel free to contact
us, but hopefully, you’re as enthusiastic as we are about this offer and hope to
see you participate.
Thank you
very much.
OPERATOR: Ladies
and gentlemen, this concludes today’s teleconference. We thank you
for your participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time
and have a great day.
END
Walgreens'
tender offers for I-trax's outstanding common stock and preferred stock have not
yet commenced. This document is neither an offer to purchase nor a
solicitation of an offer to sell any securities. In connection with the
tender offers, Walgreens intends to file a tender offer statement on Schedule TO
and related materials with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”),
and I-trax will file a solicitation/recommendation statement on Schedule 14D-9
with the SEC. Investors and security holders are strongly advised to read these
documents when they become available because they will contain important
information about the tender offers and the proposed merger. Free copies of
materials, which will be filed by Walgreens and I-trax, will be available at the
SEC’s Web site at
www.sec.gov
, or with
respect to Walgreens materials, at
www.walgreens.com
,
and also will be available, without charge, by directing requests to Walgreens,
and with respect to I-trax materials, at
www.i-trax.com
, and
will also be available, without charge, by directing requests to
I-trax.
I-Trax
March
17, 2008
10:45
a.m. EST
OPERATOR: Thank
you for joining the CHD Meridian associate conference call. We will
open up the floor for questions at the end of the call. Now, I would
like to turn the call over to Frank Martin and Dixon Thayer. Sirs,
the floor is yours.
FRANK
MARTIN, CHAIRMAN, CHD MERIDIAN: Welcome everybody and good
morning. This is Frank Martin and, I’d like to start off by saying,
as you all know, two of our key growth initiatives for our business have been
proof of concept and awareness and attraction to the concept. Merely
focusing on the proving the value of workplace health care to and for our
clients and, to the outside world. And, we have all done an amazing
job at that. Largely with your help. Getting a great deal
of press mention. Adding lots of new business. Filling up
the pipeline.
One of
the results of all of this attention is that we’ve been approached over the last
several months by a number of companies who really understand the value of what
we’re creating to talk to us about the prospect of some kind of strategic
reliance and – or, business combination. And, I’m very excited to
announce that on Friday evening we’ve signed a definitive agreement to be
acquired by Walgreens. And, to really be a platform company for a
new, exciting movement in health care.
We will
be joining forces with a subsidiary of Walgreens called Take Care Health
Systems. Take care manages the retail clinics in the Walgreen
pharmacies. And, we are with Take Care forming a new division of
Walgreens which is going to be focused on delivering convenient access to high
quality health care, both at the work site and in the retail
market. Walgreens is very committed to this. They’ve
established a new division that they’re calling the Health and Wellness
Division. And, to demonstrate their level of commitment to the
workplace and to this integration strategy, they’re also simultaneously
acquiring Whole Health. And, as many of you know, Whole Health is our
largest competitor and, also, a very strong provider of workplace health and
wellness.
We will
be aligning with Whole Health to form what will be the nation’s leading provider
of onsite workplace health operations. Walgreens will also be
integrating their workplace pharmacy which is the legacy Family Meds
business. And, they will be also aligned with our pharmacy
operations.
This is
clearly a major transformational event. For the industry, for
Walgreens and for us. It is the bringing together of the two leading
providers in workplace health and, combining them with take care health systems
to create this health and wellness division which is key to Walgreen’s strategy
to further their growth in the healthcare sector and, become a healthcare
services provider, not just a retail service center in their
drugstores.
From a
structural perspective, we’re going to be aligned with Take Care Health Systems
which operates independently from Walgreens on a day to day
basis. But, does get the benefit of their strong corporate
support.
I am sure
that this announcement brings a great deal of uncertainty with
hit. However, it’s very important for you to know that bringing these
organizations together is a growth strategy, not a cost cutting or consolidation
strategy for any of the partners – parties involved. Given the nature
of our worksite health and wellness and fitness centers and, pharmacies, we see
absolutely no change to our current, on site staff operations. And,
over the next couple of months we will be working closely with Walgreens, with
Whole Health and Take Care Health to evaluate what the best structure our
operations will be to come up with a best of breed in the combination of all of
these organizations.
We know
this will take time. As a public company, it’s likely that this
transaction will take somewhere from 30 to 60 days to close. During
that period of time, we will start working on what the integration will look
like. We certainly will keep you all apprised of that through various
communications. But, what’s very, very important to all of us is that
you know that your leadership team is in place. We want to do
everything we can as does Walgreens, to support our operations. To
support and enhance the client and patient relationship. And, they
are looking very, very closely at us because of considering us to the be the
thought leaders, the industry leaders and, as their CEO and President said to me
this morning, you know, we’re buying you guys because of your
people. And, we want your people to help take us into a new model
where we have the ability to connect employees and patients both at the work
site and through over 6,000 touch points that Walgreens can create so that we
can handle employees and beneficiaries and dependents, not just at the worksite
but, all over the country.
Walgreens
is attracted to us because of our strength, our growth potential, the breadth of
capabilities and, that’s really a reflection on the quality of
people. They announced this morning that they are forming this new
health and wellness division, the President of that division will be Hal
F. Rosenbluth. Hal was the founder and chairman of Take
Care Health which is the retail clinic operation. And, culturally, I
think Hal is absolutely a leader in the culture that it’s about employees
first. In fact, he’s written a couple of business management books,
the first of which is The Customer Comes Second. On the premises that
if you invest heavily in your people, they will take care of everything
else.
We do not
expect staff reductions in the combination of these business. I know
that a lot of you are concerned, probably, about consolidation of various
functions. There may be some overlap and some consolidation but,
please be assured that there is enough work and, because this is a growth
strategy, that every able bodies, hard working person will have plenty to
do
Most
importantly, we want to impress that we want to continue to support and do
everything we can to enrich the experience at the worksite health centers and to
support our front line clinicians who provide an excellent service.
Being a
part of a larger organization gives us a lot of access to additional resources
that we don’t have. Our Board deliberated a great deal over this to
make sure that this was the right thing for us to do. Because, it’s
not the first time we’ve been approached by a potential
acquirer. And, we looked long and hard at our ability to grow the
business. Our access to capital to invest in the
business. And, really, what’s the right thing for all of our
stakeholders, which would be a combination of shareholders and, all of our
associates. And, our customers and their employees, as
well. And, we feel very strongly that this alignment really creates
an unparalleled model of access to convenient and high quality
care.
We’ll
continue with our plans to regional operations, to provide intensive training
for our operations organization. We’ll be contacting key clients by
phone all day. We’ve put together a very extensive communications
plan to contact clients and vendors and, so forth.
One thing
we know is that today’s announcement’s going to generate a lot of
questions. Some of those questions, we just don’t have an answer for
because we’ve been focusing over the last couple of months on whether this is
the right thing to do. And not, necessarily, on how we’re going to do
it. But, to Walgreen’s credit, they are looking to us to help guide
them as to how we’re going to do this. So, over the next couple of
months the senior leadership team from Walgreens, Take Care Health, I-Trax CHD
Meridian, Pro Fitness and, Whole Health will all be getting together to spend a
couple of months on how to do this right. And, how to end up with the
best possible organization and, the best organizational structure.
So,
before I open it to questions, I’d like to offer this opportunity to Dixon to
say a few words. And then, Ray to say a few words.
DIXON
THAYER, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, CHD MERIDIAN: Let’s go to Ray (ph)
first.
FRANK
MARTIN: Dixon says let’s go with Ray (ph) first.
RAY: Yielding
the floor.
It is a –
really a magical opportunity to take workplace health to a new
level. And, I just wanted to share my thoughts with you as someone
whose been dedicated to trying to deliver the best care possible to
patients.
For a
long time the health care delivery system has been set up, I’m sad to say, to
cater to the doctors rather than the patients. And, one of the
concepts that we’ve been promoting in the marketplace is the notion that we
ought to be providing care where the people are, at the workplace, where most
people spend the majority of their waking days. By being able to tie,
now, over 500 workplace health sites with over 6,000 pharmacy locations, we have
a chance to offer people an opportunity to receive care where they work, where
they shop. And, if we are fortunate enough to be able to tie all of
these points of care together, across the country, on a single electronic
platform, we can really contribute to a new era of health care delivery for this
country. And, I believe, that should offer for all of you clinicians
out there a chance to be quite excited knowing that your patients and, the
employees of the clients that we provide service to, can have excellent care and
coverage, not only where they live and where they work. But, also as
they travel throughout the country.
I want to
thank all of you for the incredibly hard work that you’ve delivered that has
offered a chance, as Frank had said, to prove the value of what we do to the
marketplace largely through publications. Several of you have helped
to contribute to over a dozen publications just over the last
year. In journals and, in book chapters and, in annual reports such
as the quality compass delivered through NCQA. And, so with that, I’m
going to turn things over to Dixon to say a few words, as well.
DIXON
THAYER: Thanks, Ray (ph).
I’ll be
brief, I think Frank and Ray (ph) have covered a lot of the
waterfront on why this is really a whole other step for this Company in a real
positive way.
What I’d
to just keep us thinking about as we go through this process. Frank
pointed out that it’ll take us, you know, 45 or 60 days to figure out all of the
answers to everybody’s questions. But, you know, it’s a very natural
thing for all of us to start to lose a little focus,
temporarily. And, that’s because we’ll start asking the very valid
question of what does this mean to me, personally? Is this a good thing, is this
a bad thing and, so on. And, what I’d like to point out is that one
of the things that makes Walgreens such an already good partner is they decided
that they were going to wait until they had these different
entities. Then, they were going to put the management teams in the
room together. And then, they were going to say, where do we want to
go? And, for all of you who have read Collin’s (ph) book on Good to Great, it’s
one of the most important keystones to success. And, the point I want
to add is that while we’re sitting there thinking at times, you know, how does
this really look to me? You know, should I be excited? Should I be sad? If we
take our eye off the ball, it makes it much harder for us as a management team
to sit in those rooms and discuss how to organize this Company if our Company
starts to falter. And, it’s because of the success we’ve had that
everybody has been attracted to us. We need to maintain
that. We need to compartmentalize. We need to be able to
say, I’ll think about that on my way to work or, on my way from
work. I’m going to take great heart into what Frank said, which is
that they’ve expressed nothing but positive energy about wanting to resource us
more as opposed to find ways to cut costs for savings. But, at the
same time, I even have to spend less time on that. We have to deliver
on the promise that we have put together while we talk about how do we bring
these companies together. The brightest star in the constellation
will end up really being the star that guides where this Company is
going. And, I want that star to be us.
So,
anyway, with that, I’ll turn it back to Frank and open it up to
questions.
FRANK
MARTIN: Just before we open it up to questions, I want to reiterate
what Dixon said. And, it is really – Walgreens is (INAUDIBLE) us an
extraordinary valuation. In current market conditions and, you know,
one of the things we looked very hard at as a public company, is that we
obviously need to make sure that the choice we make is not just good for our
shareholders but, also good for our people. But, it is our people
that have created this value. And, I think you should all be
extremely proud of the price that they have put on our Company. For
anybody that, you know, follows the stock market or, looks at valuations, by any
measure, this an extremely high price. And, I want to thank you all,
very much, for your contributions to creating that.
So, with
that, I’m happy to open it up for questions. And, please feel free to
ask them. We know that you have plenty of
questions. Certainly, your managers, Danee (ph) and his
team. Any of us are available to answer them. But, we
would like you to feel comfortable to ask them on the call.
OPERATOR: The
floor is now open for questions. If you do have a question, please
press star one on your telephone keypad at this time. Questions will
be taken in the order they are received. If you are using a
speakerphone, we ask that while posing your question you pick up your handset to
provide favorable sound quality. If at any time your question as been
answered, you can remove yourself from the queue by pressing
pound. Again, ladies and gentlemen, if you do have a question or
comment, please press star one on your telephone keypad at this
time.
Our first
question comes from Randall Frakes of CHD Meridian. Please state your
question.
RANDALL
FRAKES, CHD MERIDIAN: Hi. Can you tell me when the buy
freeze will be lifted on the CHD Meridian employees on the stock?
UNIDENTIFIED
PARTICIPANT: I don’t think that there is any non public information
out in the marketplace at this point. So, I would say, technically,
the freeze if off. But, I would encourage you not to trade in the
stock between now and the time it closes. The shares – there was a
lot of volume in the stock this morning. A lot of that was, you know,
we had well over a million shares short, so the shorts had to
cover. Great day, for us that are long …
UNIDENTIFIED
PARTICIPANT: I love it when the shorts have to cover. I’m
telling you.
UNIDENTIFIED
PARTICIPANT: You know, the stock will trade by professionals between
now and the time that the tender closes because the professionals are happy to
make pennies, versus us. Just so that everybody understands the way
the process will work, is that anybody that owns stock options, restricted
shares or, any equity holders. Walgreens will be filing a tender
offer document within the next 10 business days. Likely to file next
Monday. Simultaneously, we’ll be filing a document that is – will
give a background of the merger. At that point, that will commence
the tender. So, anybody that is an equity holder will get contacted
by mail, by e-mail, by brokers, and so forth, about the tender offer with
instructions as to what to do. When they have over 50 percent of the
shares, they will take over our Board. We will leave two Board
members, which would be myself and Haywood Cochran (ph). And, they
would put three people on the Board. When they have over 90 percent
of the shares, they will be able to force the merger.
The
tender offer period is initially 20 business days. But,
simultaneously, in fact, I’m sure they’ll be doing it, if not today,
tomorrow. They have to make a regulatory filing under the
Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Act to make sure that they get regulatory clearance
to do a transaction like this as well. So, I would say the
professionals are really good at trading in narrow ranges here. And,
they’re happy to make pennies. And my, you know, having been a trader
at one point in my career, I would encourage you that if you’re not a
professional trader, it’s probably not a great thing for you to be trading in
our stock right now.
As a
matter of course, I will get a list from the SEC that asks us if we know anybody
that’s traded in the stock from the time that Walgreens submitted their proposal
and, the time that we closed. Because they will carefully monitor to
make sure that there was no insider trading. That is a matter of
course. Not because anybody has any fears. And, I think
the way our stock has responded, we’re real comfortable that there haven’t been
any leaks.
But, I’d
say there is no material non-public information. Now, you’re welcome
to tell anybody. They can do whatever they want. I just
urge you to be careful.
UNIDENTIFIED
PARTICIPANT: Thank you, sir.
OPERATOR: Thank
you. Our next question comes from Todd Neuman (ph), please state your
question.
TODD
NEUMAN (ph): Hi. Todd Neuman (ph) in New
Jersey.
Just
looking at the fact that Take Care is a nurse practitioner model, almost in it’s
entirety. What do you view the future of PA’s maybe with CHD, moving
forward?
UNIDENTIFIED
PARTICIPANT: Ray’s going to answer that.
RAY
(ph): The role of all of the practitioners in our clinical community
will remain very important. And so, whether it’s sports
physiologists, personal trainers, health coaches, care managers, nurses, nurse
practitioners, physician’s assistants, physicians, pharmacists, or, therapists,
they will all play a role in being trusted clinicians now at the work place and,
in this very significant network of pharmacies across the country.
TODD
NEUMAN (ph): So, can I interpret that as there may be more
opportunity for Pas in the pharmacy model moving forward than there is
currently?
RAY
(ph): You know, it is yet to be determined how our strategy outside
of the workplace will manifest itself in the network of retail
clinics. But, we, you know, we will continue to express how important
all of these members of our clinical community are in helping to support
patients with maintaining a healthy lifestyle or, receiving evidenced based
car.
UNIDENTIFIED
PARTICIPANT: Todd (ph), I’d also like to add – and, I know, as we’ve
gone through the due diligence process with them. That they’re – one
of the reasons they’re very excited about us is the broadness of our
offering. And, the fact that we do offer primary
care. And, we do have a lot of different services. And, it
is their goal to be able to broaden those services to actually be offered to the
Take Care health center at their retail site. They, I know, recently,
they told me that a very, very large prospect of theirs in Atlanta had an
interest in more the urgent care, episodic model that is common in the retail
environment. And, they’re pitch to them was that they should look at
a much broader offering to include primary care, health and fitness and
wellness. And, I know, they want to try to migrate our programs to be
able to be offered out of the take care health clinics. So, I think
at the employer level, the goal will be to have as much as we can possibly
bundle into a program. And then, to carry those programs out so that
it’ll be available for all of our non-proximate workers and, all the
dependents. And, also for employees that may be
traveling. They’ll be able to go into a Walgreens and Take Care
health center and actually have their electronic medical records available to
the nurse practitioner at that site.
TODD
NEUMAN (ph): Right. Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED
PARTICIPANT: You know, maybe simply put, I think that the future for
physician associates – physician assistants is quite bright.
UNIDENTIFIED
PARTICIPANT: Absolutely. With the shortages all over the
place. This is only a good thing for all of them.
TODD
NEUMAN (ph): I hope so. Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED
PARTICIPANT: Thanks, Todd (ph).
OPERATOR: Our
next question comes from Sandy Messaro (ph). Ma’m, please state your
question.
SANDY
MESSARO (ph): Hi, everyone. (INAUDIBLE), congratulations
on the transaction. It’s really exciting.
I had two
quick questions. I’ve been talking to clients this morning and,
everything is going very well. One thing was I understand there’s
going to be a four p.m. analyst call this afternoon. And,
that might be helpful for everyone to know that because the clients kind of
missed the Walgreen’s call because it was so early. And, that’s not a
problem. But, will we all be getting the information for the four
p.m. call?
UNIDENTIFIED
PARTICIPANT: Jane (ph), that’s on our website. And, I
believe that Michelle (ph) – I saw it. The press
release. So, it is out. It is on the finance
websites. It is also – we’ve sent that note to our database so, it is
on our websites. And, I think Peter (ph) wants to say something
here.
PETER
HOTZ
,
EXECUTIVE VICE
PRESIDENT AND CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, CHD MERIDIAN: No, it’s Peter
Hotz. The Walgreens call is available on their Web site. I
believe for 30 days. So, I think if you go on their Web site and,
Jane (ph), that’s a real good point. I’ll have Michelle (ph) put out
an e-mail so that people know that.
SANDY
MESSARO (ph): OK.
HOTZ: So,
anyone can go back. They can listen to the Walgreen’s
call. And, we’ll send out an e-mail announcing our call
internally.
SANDY
MESSARO (ph): Because the four p.m. call is a different
call, correct?
UNIDENTIFIED
PARTICIPANT: Is a different call, correct.
SANDY
MESSARO (ph): OK. And, that’s going to be appealing to our
clients.
And then,
second quick question, is Hal (ph) and maybe other key executives available to
make personal visits to key clients such as Goldman Sachs in the short – you
know, upcoming days.
UNIDENTIFIED
PARTICIPANT: They certainly indicated that. Hal’s (ph) on
a plane to come down here to Nashville now to meet with the leadership team
here. And, one thing that they have told me is that once this is
announced, they really would like to get out and meet with the key clients so
that people can get comfortable that this is a resourcing up, not a resourcing
down. And, this is an expansion of programs and services, an
expansion of support for those programs and services.
SANDY
MESSARO (ph): OK. Great. Thanks.
UNIDENTIFIED
PARTICIPANT: If any of you have client questions. Or, if
any of your clients have questions, please refer them to us. I would
say if the DCOs and your managers don’t feel comfortable answering some of the
questions. Or, they want to talk to somebody in the senior management
team, we are happy to do that. Whether it be Ray (ph), Peter , Dixon,
Danee (ph), myself. Any of us are happy to talk to
clients. This’ll be, obviously, a extremely busy
day. We’ve got investors calling left and right,
obviously. Which is why we have the 4:00 call. But, I
would encourage you, any of you that want to listen to that 4:00 call, if you
didn’t hear the Walgreens call this morning, please feel free to do
so. And, encourage our clients to do so. I think we will
address as much as we can as it relates to them. Not just to our
shareholders, at that time as well.
I know
one of the questions that was – that has been on people’s minds. And,
it was certainly asked about here is what’s going to happen to the Nashville
office? And, I would say one of the first questions they asked me is, is the new
building we’re moving to really have enough space for us to expand, based on the
way we expect to expand our business? So, Nashville is clearly intended to
continue to be the operations center for what we do.
OPERATOR: Sir,
would you like another question?
UNIDENTIFIED
PARTICIPANT: Sure.
OPERATOR: Our
next question comes from Gary Glissman (ph). Please state your
question.
GARY
GLISSMAN (ph): Hi, this is Gary Glissman (ph) from
CHD. Congratulations here, gentlemen, for a job well
done.
UNIDENTIFIED
PARTICIPANT: Thanks, Gary (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED
PARTICIPANT: Thanks, Gary (ph).
GARY
GLISSMAN (ph): Just had a – just a quick business related question
relative to our clients that may be scheduled for system changes or, in the
early stages of a conversion or, maybe even recently converted. Are
we going to see recommendations or, get recommendations fairly quickly from our
IS team relative to do we proceed with those or, are those going to be
necessarily put on hold because of a picture now.
DIXON
THAYER: Gary (ph), this is Dixon. Nothing is on
hold. It’s back to what I was saying in my remarks. That
they’re buying us because of our strategy. They’re buying us because
of what we’ve been doing so well. I’m sure over the long haul they’ll
be certain things that we’ll modify here or there in our decisions, in our
processes and, so on. But, absolutely not. Full speed
ahead. Tomorrow should feel just like the day before we had this
news.
GARY
GLISSMAN (ph): OK. So, the I-Medica (ph) and Enterprise RX
(ph) are still – whatever’s scheduled should just proceed as
scheduled.
DIXON
THAYER: Full speed ahead
GARY
GLISSMAN (ph): OK. Thanks.
DIXON
THAYER: That’s a great question, Gary (ph). Thank
you.
OPERATOR: Our
next question comes from April Lanam (ph). Please state your
question.
APRIL
LANAM (ph): Good morning. Congratulation. And,
very excited about the opportunity in front of the (INAUDIBLE).
A couple
of questions. One was, Peter, a while you say that the Walgreens
announced it was going to be available for 30 days. It’s actually
available for 12 months on their website.
UNIDENTIFIED
PARTICIPANT: Great, great.
APRIL
LANAM (ph): And, the other question I had was how are we going to be
communicating on a regular basis to the employees (INAUDIBLE) Meridian as far as
how this thing transpires and, next steps, and things (INAUDIBLE)
on.
DIXON
THAYER: April (ph), where are you?
Walk down
the hall.
No, we
will communicate with everybody within CHD Meridian in the way we would normally
communicate with them on a regular basis. We will occasionally do
some broadcast e-mails. We will, still, I believe, continue with our
quarterly results discussions. Even though now, it won’t be based on
a shareholder review. I see no reason to stop our quarterly internal
calls. The beat, the pulse, I guess the beat goes on or, something
like that. And so, we will continue to communicate the way we’re
going. Now, of course, if there happens to be an immediate
transactional decision being made somewhere, then we’ll handle that with an
immediate, you know, e-mail blast. But, I can not emphasize enough
how it’s business as usual. You know, starting this afternoon, you
know, we must stay focused and driving, the same way we would run this Company
yesterday is the same way we’re going to run it for the foreseeable
future.
UNIDENTIFIED
PARTICIPANT: Dixon, if I could just add one thing.
I think
for everybody on this call, just to encourage your folks to pay particular
attention to e-mail. I know sometimes it’s difficult during the day
with the roles that we have in the field to do that. But, I think the
more you can sort of take just a quick break, check e-mails, that that’s
obviously, as you saw this morning, the quickest way for us to get information
out. So, I think it’s important to pay special attention to, you
know, the electronic means and e-mail.
UNIDENTIFIED
PARTICIPANT: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED
PARTICIPANT: OK? What -- anything else, April (ph)?
LANHAM: No,
that was it.
UNIDENTIFIED
PARTICIPANT: Good, get back to work.
Any other
questions.
Well look
at the …
OPERATOR: There
appears to be
UNIDENTIFIED
PARTICIPANT: I’m sorry?
OPERATOR: There
appears to be no (INAUDIBLE) at this time.
UNIDENTIFIED
PARTICIPANT: Well, listen. Again, I can’t thank you all
enough for having done such a great job. We think the future is
extremely exciting. And, it’s all because of you. One
thing that I note, these things take time to do right. And, we are
going to do it right. So, that’s why, I think, the reiteration of
Dixon’s point and, all of our points are, we can not let up our focus from where
it currently is. That’s the easiest way for us to drift and to have
this not be a great deal for all involved. So, we will keep you
abreast of information as soon as we have it. You’re leaders are
staying in place while we work through this process. And, as I said,
please feel free to contact us if you have any questions. Anybody
that has any technical questions over the merger, if you’re equity holders,
please feel free to contact me or, Yuri Rozenfeld, our general
counsel.
Thank you
all very much, again. And have a great day. And, those of
us who are Irish, it’s very lucky.
OPERATOR: Thank
you this does conclude today’s conference. We thank you for your
participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time and, have a
great day.
END
Walgreens'
tender offers for I-trax's outstanding common stock and preferred stock have not
yet commenced. This document is neither an offer to purchase nor a
solicitation of an offer to sell any securities. In connection with the
tender offers, Walgreens intends to file a tender offer statement on Schedule TO
and related materials with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”),
and I-trax will file a solicitation/recommendation statement on Schedule 14D-9
with the SEC. Investors and security holders are strongly advised to read these
documents when they become available because they will contain important
information about the tender offers and the proposed merger. Free copies of
materials, which will be filed by Walgreens and I-trax, will be available at the
SEC’s Web site at
www.sec.gov
, or with
respect to Walgreens materials, at
www.walgreens.com
,
and also will be available, without charge, by directing requests to Walgreens,
and with respect to I-trax materials, at
www.i-trax.com
, and
will also be available, without charge, by directing requests to
I-trax.
I-Trax
March
17, 2008
12:00
p.m. EST
OPERATOR: Thank
you for joining the CHD Meridian Associates conference call. We will
open up the line for questions at the end of the call.
Now I
would like to turn the call over to Frank Martin and Dixon Thayer.
FRANK
MARTIN, CHAIRMAN, I-TRAX: Good morning, everyone, and
welcome. As you all know, two of our three growth initiatives for our
business has been proof of concept and awareness and attraction to the concept
and proving the value of workplace healthcare for both our clients and our
employees and to the rest of the world.
We've all
done a great job of that and we've had numerous recognitions for doing
so. Our business has grown. Our pipeline is growing and
the results of all of this attention have caused over the last number of months
a number of companies to approach us about the prospect of some kind of
strategic partnering or business combination.
And I'm
very excited to announce that on Friday evening, we signed a definitive
agreement to be acquired by Walgreen's and to be one of the platform companies
for an exciting new movement in healthcare.
We will
be joining forces with Take Care Health Systems, which manages retail clinics in
Walgreen's pharmacies to forming a new division of Walgreen's which will be
focused on delivering convenient access to high quality healthcare.
This
division as Walgreen's announced this morning, will be called the health and
wellness division, and will be focused on providing services at both the
corporate and the retail markets.
And in
addition, as an example of their – to show the level of their commitment to
getting into the workplace health environment, simultaneously, they will be
acquiring Whole Health as well as us, which as many of you know is our largest
competitor and a strong provider of workplace health, wellness and fitness
services.
We will
be aligning with Whole Health to form what will be by far the nation's leading
providers of on-site workplace health services. In addition,
Walgreen's workplace pharmacy operations, the former family meds business, will
be aligned with our pharmacy operations.
This is
clearly a major transformational event for the industry, for Walgreen's and for
us. It is the bringing together of two leading providers in workplace
health and combining them with Take Care Health Systems to create the health and
wellness division which is key to Walgreen's strategy to further their growth in
the healthcare sector.
And we're
going to play a very important role in this transformation. From a
structural standpoint, we will be aligned with Take Care Health Systems, which
operates independently from Walgreen's on a day-to-day basis, but does get the
benefit of Walgreen's strong corporate support.
We know
that an announcement like this brings a level of uncertainty with it, however,
it's important for you to know that bringing these organizations together is a
growth strategy and not a cost-cutting strategy for any of the parties
involved.
Given the
nature of our workplace health and wellness centers, fitness centers and
pharmacies, we don't expect any changes to our current on-site staff or
operations and we will work together with Whole Health, Take Care Health and
Walgreen's to evaluate how to best structure operations and to create the
strongest organization possible.
We know
that this will take time and to Walgreen's credit, they wanted to make sure that
we were able to get these companies aligned, and then once the transaction was
announced, have the senior management teams of all four companies get together
and spend the right amount of time developing a transition and integration plan
where we can really come up with the best of breed.
We're
looking at several months to develop a full integration and transition plan, but
during this time, we have to continue our current operations in all
areas. And I want to assure you that our executive and leadership
teams will remain in place during the transition period.
Our
company is strong in many areas and we expect that our leadership and our teams
will be leading several critical areas of this new combined
operation.
When I
received a call this morning from the Walgreen's executives, they wanted to
remind me clearly that they are buying us because of our strength, our growth
potential, our thought leadership, the breadth of our capabilities and they
really wanted me to thank all of our associates and our team for doing a great
quality job, which is a reflection on the quality of our people and the jobs
that you do.
I want to
assure people that with the growth rate of the combined organizations, we don't
expect any significant reductions. In fact, we're likely going to be
adding staff in key support areas. This division of Walgreen's is a
new and growing division.
They have
lots of need for lots of people and we're expecting that with the inclusion of
us and Whole Health, there may be some redundancies, but not in any way that
would create a reduction of staff. What's most important for
everybody is that you'll understand the importance of supporting our front-line
clinicians and our staff, and providing excellent service to our
customers.
And we
want to insure that this is maintained throughout the process. We've
experienced amazing growth over the past 3 years due to your hard work and your
passionate commitment to our pursuit, which is our third growth
initiative.
Becoming
a part of this larger organization will give us much needed resources to support
that growth and expand our capabilities. Our board delineated a great
deal over this and we feel very strongly that this merger is in the best
interest of all of our stakeholders, whether they be shareholders, clients,
employees or associates.
And it's
a great validation of the work that we've all done to make I-Trax and CHD
Meridian the strong valuable company that it is. The valuation that
we're receiving from Walgreen's is a great testament for not only the hard
wonderful work that you do, but for the opportunity that we've
created.
We will
continue with our plans to regionalize operations and provide intensive training
for our operations organization. We have a detailed communications
plan.
We're in
the process of contacting key clients by phone and e-mail and sending out formal
communications explaining the acquisition and assuring them that we will
continue the high level of clinical excellence and customer service they rely
on.
We know
today's announcement would generate a lot of questions and I hope to hear many
of them from you on the call today. We'll do our best to answer them,
but unfortunately, a lot of them is going to be, we just don't know
yet.
But as we
develop our integration plans and transition plans, we'll do everything we can
to keep people posted and positive and so forth. This is a very
exciting day. I think one of the first e-mails I got this morning
from one of our bigger investors was, boy, the luck of the Irish.
If you
consider what's going on in the public markets today for small cap companies,
it's extraordinary for Walgreen's to recognize the opportunity that we've
created and to pay as much as they are paying for us.
So at
this point, I'd like to turn the speaker over to Ray. Ray will then
have Dixon say a few words, and then we'll open the lines for
questions.
RAYMOND
FABIUS, PRESIDENT, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER, I-TRAX: Good morning and
afternoon to those of you on the call. This is an extraordinary
moment in our history.
A company
of the size of Walgreen's recognizing the potential value that we bring to the
marketplace is a tremendous credit to our passionate pursuit, our proof of
concept, that a healthy workforce is a competitive advantage, and that the
workplace is an excellent place to deliver care.
Walgreen's
is interested in tying more than 500 workplace health centers that it is
acquiring with roughly 6,000 pharmacy sites, which they see as additional points
of care.
And it's
particularly exciting for those of us that are clinicians to realize that there
is the potential to tie nearly 7,000 points of care together with an electronic
medical record so that we can say to our patients that they can receive care at
the workplace where they spend most of their waking hours, as well as in their
community and where they shop, and in addition, when they travel.
So it's
incumbent upon us right now to stay focused on the wonderful care that we
deliver during this transitional period and to assist in what looks to be a
terrific opportunity to make a contribution not only to the present clients that
we serve, but also to this country as a whole.
With a
shortage of primary care becoming increasingly apparent, this may offer a new
and exciting alternative for people to access quality care in a very effective
and efficient fashion.
And with
that, I'm going to turn it over to Dixon.
DIXON
THAYER, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, I-TRAX: Thanks, Ray. I'll
be brief. I don't know how many of you have read the classic business
book,
Good to Great
, by
Jim Collins.
In it, he
talks about some significant research he did about how do some companies go from
just being good to being great, and one of the most fundamental rules that he
found was that first you get the right people in the room and then you decide
where you want to go.
And for
me, this is already a testament to Walgreen's as a great partner in our future
success because some of the details around how we will function going forward
aren't clarified, but because they've said, we want to get all the right people
in the room and then we'll decide where we want to go.
So it's
something that says that they really do see how to build great
enterprises. Now, when an acquisition like this happens, it's natural
for all of us to start asking a little bit about, well, what does it mean to
me? Is this a good thing, is this a bad thing? And it's
just natural for it to distract us at times as we go through it.
You know,
I've been through this before. Experience shows me several times over
that it's very important that we as an organization don't forget that the very
thing that attracted these guys to us was our strategy, where we're going, how
well we're doing getting there.
And the
worst thing that could happen would be for when we convene the top leaders from
each of these businesses that are going to come together to form this new
division, if we're sitting there at the table talking about why we've sort of
faltered and taken our eye off the ball because of the distractions of this
acquisition, it will make it much harder for us to be able to stand as the
representatives of where it should go.
So
anyway, my point is that the brightest star in the constellation will be the one
that everybody guides themselves by and I want us to be the brightest
star.
So with
all this exciting news and having somebody like Walgreen's with the resources to
really drive our strategy farther, faster, harder, we just have to make sure
that we remember it's our strategy that brought them here and that it's our
strategy that we have to continue to deliver every day so that we continue to
lead this effort in transformation of healthcare.
FRANK
MARTIN: So with that, we'd like to open the lines for questions and I
know that there are probably a great deal of questions. Some of you
may feel a bit inhibited to ask them.
I would
encourage you to do so and do it in a public forum because you'd be surprised
how many of your colleagues have the same questions and would love to hear
somebody else ask them. And you know, clearly we will be available to
speak to you later, to speak to your clients, to answer any questions, but I
would encourage you to do so now.
OPERATOR: Thank
you. The floor is now open for questions. If anyone has a
question, please press star, one on your telephone keypad at this
time. Questions will be taken in the order that they were
received. If you are using a speakerphone, we ask that while posing
your question, you pick up your handset to provide (INAUDIBLE) sound
quality.
If at any
time your question has been answered, you can remove yourself from the queue by
pressing pound. Again, ladies and gentlemen, if anyone has a question
or comment, please press star, one on your telephone keypad at this
time. Please hold while we pull for questions.
Again, if
anyone has a question or comment, please press star, one on your telephone
keypad.
DIXON
THAYER: Oh, come on, people. Here, I'll ask a
question. I've always got questions whenever I can sit down next to
Frank. So what does this mean about the regional organization we've
been hearing about, Frank? Do we slow any of that down?
FRANK
MARTIN: No, I asked you that question this morning, Dixon, and the
way you answered it was no, absolutely not. That is the right
organizational structure for a service-oriented business and likely the way that
that will evolve is as we look more closely to that and how we can use that same
structure as we integrate Take Care and Whole Health.
Most
importantly, we're going to continue along those lines and continue to provide
the training and support that we've planned to do under that
organization. And as Dixon said, it's heads down. We can't
take our eye off the ball and be distracted by this. I think that's
the way you answered it, Dixon.
DIXON
THAYER: That's right.
FRANK
MARTIN: One of the questions I got was, you know, what about the
Nashville office? And I can assure you that one of their first
questions was, is the new building that the people in Nashville are planning to
move into have enough space for our expansion?
So Take
Care Health, which will be – which is where Hal Rosenbluth, who was named
president this morning by Walgreen's of the new health and wellness division,
Take Care Health is based in suburban Philadelphia, not very far from Chadds
Ford.
So I
would imagine at some point in the not too distant future, we will be
consolidating Chadds Ford and Take Care Health into one location. But
it is clearly anticipated that Nashville will be expanding and not
retracting.
DIXON
THAYER: All right. We're prime in the
pump. We've got something.
FRANK
MARTIN: I think we have a question from Bill Rollerson
(ph).
BILL
ROLLERSON (ph): Correct.
OPERATOR: Yes,
Bill (ph), go ahead with your question.
BILL
ROLLERSON (ph): As I understand it, we would be a division of the
Take Home Health then versus being the corporate Walgreen's. I guess
my question comes down to as far as benefits and things like abilities, you
contribute to 401K?
You guys
may not be able to answer this at this point, but I know in general, the 401K is
limited with Walgreen's to 3 percent of your income and that's one of the great
things I loved about CHD. So is it too early to even speculate on
what type of benefits we might receive?
FRANK
MARTIN: No. I can – I can tell you, Bill (ph), that one of
the conditions we put into the merger agreement was that the benefits had to be
at least equal to or greater than our current benefit
structure. There is a part of the question that I can't answer, but I
would tell you that we're not going to be a sub of Take Care.
We're
going to be a sub of Walgreen's, but we are going to be in a division of
Walgreen's called health and wellness, which will include us, Take Care and
Whole Health and the family meds asset at the work site.
At some
point, they may even consider moving option care into that division which offers
home infusion therapy because of its possibilities of being integrated into the
workplace as well as the retail environment.
The
benefit level at the Take Care Health Center is different than the benefit level
of corporate because of the different kinds of employees and the number of, you
know, professionals in that environment as well.
So I can
tell you that we will be working together to put together a benefit plan for all
of us, but it has been agreed upon in the merger that it will be no less than it
currently is.
BILL
ROLLERSON (ph): Very good, thank you.
FRANK
MARTIN: Sure thing.
OPERATOR: Another
question from Carol Kinney (ph). Go ahead with your question, Carol
(ph).
CAROL
KINNEY (ph): Hi, I have a question. In the past, when I've
worked in hospitals and there were acquisitions and they – one of the reasons
they said was that resources – more resources would be available and that did
not come to fruition. So how will you insure that we will have
resources available?
DIXON
THAYER: Carol (ph), this is Dixon. That's a – you know,
one of those kinds of questions that no matter what you say, you really can't be
clear enough and that is that many people approach acquisitions and integration
differently and a lot of times, there are people that sort of say, oh, here's
all the good news and then nothing really comes from it.
Also,
it's very hard for people in the position like Frank and me and Ray to say,
trust me, trust me, trust me, but in this case, I will say Frank and others have
done as much due diligence on Walgreen's as they have been doing on
us. And you see, we don't own assets.
You know,
hospitals own assets. We don't own, you know, even our contracts are
really quite paper thin. They're really around relationships, so it's
all about the people and in the process we went through, there have been over
the last 2 or 3 years, two or three different companies that have come forward
and said, you know, we think we might want to buy you.
But they
haven't passed the vetting (ph), so you know, you never can say never, but it's
our intention, it's our understanding that they're buying us because of what
we're doing and want to reinforce it.
And we
don't really make a significant difference for them until we even expand at a
faster rate, so I have high confidence that it's not just smoke and
mirrors.
FRANK
MARTIN: I'd also tell you, Carol (ph), clearly the hospital industry
isn't a, you know, a contraction mode rather than an expansion mode and if we do
our job, we help them cause that contraction because we keep people out of the
hospital.
But this
is really a transformational event for Walgreen's. They have been
looking very closely at how to transform themselves away from just being a
retail provider of pharmaceuticals, but to look to see where healthcare is going
and the shortage, as Ray mentioned, the shortage of access to primary care and
to create something really unique and special.
And
they're prepared to invest substantially in that. If they weren't
prepared, they would never have offered us the price they did.
So I
think, you know, we've looked at a lot of areas where we want to – where we're
going to need to expand if we're going to execute on that strategy of connecting
the workplace and the retail footprint so that we can have multiple touch points
and offer an employer a product that's provider based as well as pharmacy
based.
So I
don't see this being in any way resource short. They are highly
committed to changing their model and I think that will, you know, improve their
growth strategy. And we're a foundation for that.
CAROL
KINNEY (ph): OK, thank you.
FRANK
MARTIN: Sure thing.
OPERATOR: And
we have a question from Susan Adlack (ph). Go ahead, Susan
(ph).
SUSAN
SUDLACK (ph): Sudlack (ph). Yes, Ray mentioned that it
sounds like there has been some talk about how there would be integration
between the on-site clinics and Walgreen's, the employer sides, the family care
sides.
Has there
been much discussion in that area and what kind of model that they would be
looking at or the companies would be looking at? In terms of an
employee going from one site, let's say the company site to an offsite and there
be communication of those visits?
RAYMOND
FABIUS: Susan (ph), I'm so happy that you're asking this question
because it's to the heart of the wonderful potential that these transactions can
yield.
Clearly,
we're early in the discussions around this potential, but there is no doubt that
from the consumer standpoint, from all of our standpoint as patients, it would
be wonderful to know that it would be easy for us to access our medical records
as we travel through the country or as we become ill and want to seek some care
inside our community or while we're at work.
So I
think there is – when I spoke to this, I spoke to this more because of our early
discussions with Walgreen's and because of its great potential, but there is a
lot of work to be done, no doubt, to get us there.
SUSAN
SUDLACK (ph): OK, thank you.
FRANK
MARTIN: Any other questions?
OPERATOR: If
anybody has a question or comment, please press star, one on your telephone
keypad at this time.
FRANK
MARTIN: Well, if there are no other questions, I would say in
closing, I hope you agree with us that this is extremely exciting and it is a
changing time which can be somewhat questionable, but it's certainly a change I
think for a great opportunity.
What's
very important is that we keep focused on the support for our customers, our
patients. I want to thank you again for your commitment to your jobs
and to this organization.
We will –
we will do our best to keep you updated on progress as progress develops around
the development of this new organization and this new division. We'll
use all of the various means of communication that we have available with
regards to the e-mail, the beep, the pulse, company meetings, et
cetera.
So I look
forward to sharing the next update with you soon and again, thank you so much
for creating this opportunity for us.
OPERATOR: Thank
you. This does conclude today's teleconference. We thank
you for your participation. You may disconnect your lines at this
time and have a great day.
END
Walgreens'
tender offers for I-trax's outstanding common stock and preferred stock have not
yet commenced. This document is neither an offer to purchase nor a
solicitation of an offer to sell any securities. In connection with the
tender offers, Walgreens intends to file a tender offer statement on Schedule TO
and related materials with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”),
and I-trax will file a solicitation/recommendation statement on Schedule 14D-9
with the SEC. Investors and security holders are strongly advised to read these
documents when they become available because they will contain important
information about the tender offers and the proposed merger. Free copies of
materials, which will be filed by Walgreens and I-trax, will be available at the
SEC’s Web site at
www.sec.gov
, or with
respect to Walgreens materials, at
www.walgreens.com
,
and also will be available, without charge, by directing requests to Walgreens,
and with respect to I-trax materials, at
www.i-trax.com
, and
will also be available, without charge, by directing requests to
I-trax.
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