Definitive Healthcare's stock opened 38 percent above its offering price, and five years later its largest backer offered about a dollar a share. The Massachusetts company sold a database of the U.S. healthcare system: which hospitals had which equipment, which doctors performed which procedures, and who made the buying decisions. Drug makers, device companies, and staffing firms used it to find customers. It went public in September 2021, when healthcare data was a hot investment theme.

Who Buys in a Hospital

Jason Krantz founded Definitive Healthcare in 2011 and led it as CEO. Selling to hospitals was hard. Decisions were spread across departments, and public data was scattered and messy. The bet was that a single, constantly updated database of providers, procedures, and contacts would save sales teams months of guesswork. The private equity firm Advent International took a majority stake in 2019 before the IPO.

From $27 to a Buyout Bid

Definitive priced at $27 a share and began trading on the Nasdaq as DH in September 2021, opening at $37.25. Growth slowed, the company took large write-downs, and the stock sank. In September 2026 Advent proposed taking it private at $1.02 a share, and a special committee of the board began reviewing the offer. Clay Ritchey became CEO that month. DH still trades on the Nasdaq.

Cover: Portrait of Doctor Andreas Vesalius of Brussels, Johannes Sambucus. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a portrait of the physician Vesalius (the doctors in the data).