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Bob Segert sees the company as viable for a public offering after three years of its life as a private entity. Meanwhile, athenahealth announced a new clinical advisory board this week to tackle provider burnout and other EHR documentation challenges.

The $17 billion deal marks the second time the cloud health IT vendor has been acquired in the past three years.

After a challenging few years marked (to put it mildly) by "lots of change," the chief executive describes athena's goals for product integration, SaaS innovation and client service now that its new leadership team is in place.

Francisco Partners says it will be able to give resources to help the developer of laboratory information systems and point-of-care testing technology innovate its product offerings.

As the cloud IT company continues its post-acquisition merger with Virence Health, the consolidation means job losses for some 200 employees.

The investment firm says it will combine athenahealth with Virence.

CEO Dan Burton explains what the billion-dollar mark means to the company and the industry, where its technology is headed – and where it stands on an IPO.

Athenahealth has received multiple bids, according to CNBC. The prices, reportedly at $131 per share are below a previous cash bid for the healthcare software firm in an unsolicited move by Paul Singer’s Elliott Management. WHY IT MATTERS Hospital CIOs and CFOs that are either already subscribing to athenahealth’s cloud-based EHR or practice management services or considering switching to a new cloud vendor need to know where the company stands. Will it be bought by another EHR maker or taken over by activist investors looking to break it up to make a profit? Or another fate altogether? Those questions will remain unanswered until athenahealth is either acquired or the board makes up its mind to remain independent. THE TREND CNBC’s report was based on anonymous sources and did not name which companies might be among the multiple bidders. Earlier this month, however, Healthcare IT News reported that activist investor Elliott Management was putting the brakes on its takeover bid, just two weeks after speculation arose that Elliott might be athenahealth’s best suitor with potential acquirer’s Cerner and UnitedHealth not interested. Elliott Management already owns 9 percent of athenahealth’s stock and offered as much as $7 billion in a buyout offer earlier this year. In June, CEO Jonathan Bush stepped down following reports of sexual misconduct and domestic abuse. Twitter: @SusanJMorse Email the writer: susan.morse@himssmedia.com