- Palantir Technologies Inc (NYSE:PLTR) harbored a secret plan to deepen its relationship with the U.K.’s National Health Service without public scrutiny.
- Palantir aimed to buy up smaller rivals that already had an existing relationship with the NHS, Bloomberg reports citing relevant documents.
- Palantir planned to take over small businesses serving the NHS to “take a lot of ground and take down a lot of political resistance.”
- Also Read: ‘Bad Times Are Incredibly Good For Palantir:’ CEO Alex Karp
- The suitable U.K. takeover targets were those with credible leadership, annual revenue of between £5 million and £50 million, and already selling software services to the NHS.
- Since 2020, Palantir bagged over £37 million in contracts with the NHS and the Department of Health and Social Care, the report specified, citing public spending tracker AdviceCloud.
- Key client NHS hired Palantir to help respond to COVID-19 and currently has a £360 million contract for tender.
- Palantir hopes to deepen its business with a critical client by making key hires from the NHS and via potential acquisitions.
- Palantir has faced criticism in countries including the U.S. and U.K. for providing tools to government agencies that help enable broad surveillance of populations.
- Palantir acknowledged winning NHS business on merit.
- Recently Palantir won a $229 million deal to develop and deliver artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities for the Special Forces, the Joint Staff, and every branch of the U.S. Armed Services.
- Price Action: PLTR shares traded higher by 0.87% at $8.15 in the premarket on the last check Friday.
Paytm Payments Bank Expects India’s Central Bank To Ease Regulatory Curbs On It Soon
India’s Paytm Payments Bank said it expects the central bank to allow it to start taking on new customers in the next few months and would comply with all the audit requirements to remove the regulatory curbs imposed on it.