Trump’s Covid Comments Complicate Business Liability Issues

Clover Health is going public via SPAC

Chamath Palihapitiya’s blank-check company, Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings, is acquiring Medicare Advantage insurance company Clover, in a deal valuing the company at $3.7 billion. The deal includes up to $1.2 billion in cash proceeds, $400 million of which will be through a private investment in the public entity, or PIPE, led by Mr. Palihapitiya, the billionaire former Facebook executive turned tech investor.

Clover considers itself primarily a tech company. It was founded in 2013, and sells Medicare Advantage plans in counties that include rural or underserved areas, while also offering physicians software that it says aggregates key data to improve care and cut costs. “What makes us different — and why I think we get along with Chamath — is we offer technology first, not technology-enabled,” said Andrew Toy, Clover’s president and chief technology officer. That said, the company laid off about a quarter of its employees last year as it sought to hire more health experts. “Technology can solve a lot of problems, but it can’t solve all problems right at the same time,” Mr. Toy said of the move.

• Clover will add scale with the cash it’s getting from the deal, helping it achieve profitability, a goal it hopes to meet by 2023.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/06/business/dealbook/trump-coronavirus-liability.html