Neoforma hammered on acquisition plans

Shareholders booed Neoforma.com Inc.'s (Nasdaq: NEOF)decision to buy health-care computer services company Eclipsys Corp. (Nasdaq: ECLP) for about $1.45 billion Thursday, and its affiliate HEALTHVision for around $645 million.

In afternoon trading, Neoforma was down 33 percent. Neoforma also announced it was giving up plans to take over Shared Medical Systems Corp (NYSE: SMS).

The based medical supply e-commerce company stock fell 9 7/8 to 20 1/2, hitting a new low since the company peaked at 78 3/4 following its hot IPO in January. Eclipse shares were down 2 5/16 to 23 1/2. Shared Medical Systems shares fell 3 to 51.

Neoforma also agreed to buy HEALTHvision Inc., a privately held Internet healthcare company affiliated with Eclipsys and national healthcare alliance VHA Inc for $640 million to $650 million in stock.

Chief Executive Bob Zollars, in a telephone interview with Reuters, also said Neoforma.com would issue about 120 million new shares to finance the deals.

According to the terms of the deals, Eclipsys shareholders will receive 1.344 shares of Neoforma.com for each Eclipsys share and HEALTHvision shareholders will receive 0.444 shares of Neoforma.com stock for each share of HEALTHvision not owned by Eclipsys or VHA.

Reuters contributed to this report.