Most of us would agree that they over-paid for Silverlink, but...

Most of us would agree that they over-paid for Silverlink, but we also need to understand the context underpinning the decision.

In short:

1. There were some consolidation happening and Silverlink happened to be one of the largest and few remaining independent PAS providers
2. Silverlink was also one of the very few that is available for sale because the founder was looking to cash out (for retirement I think), and a cash sale was the one of the key selling point
3. From a technological point of view, Silverlink was also one of the 'very few' PAS that allowed two way integration. Without this capability, there is really no point
4. We also knew that Alcidion was approached by several NHS trusts regarding a larger EPR offering using Miya as the core architecture but Alcidion couldn't because they did not have a PAS offering. Because of this, the opportunities went to the larger integrated US entities, which is not aligned to the best of breed that the UK health system is moving towards

For the reasons above, it is unsurprising that the seller had extremely strong bargaining power and demanded a higher premium than what would normally be possible.