Janus Capital to Invest $930 Million in Healtheon/WebMD

Updated from 9:29 a.m. EST

Healtheon/WebMD (HLTH) surged in pre-hours trading Thursday after announcing that Janus Capital would invest $930 million in the online health specialists in exchange for 15 million Healtheon shares.

The stock ran up 5%, or 3 3/16, to 69 11/16 as the news went down well with investors' morning coffee. (Healtheon closed up 4 9/16, or 6.88%, at 71 1/16.)

The terms of the deal priced Healtheon shares at $62.

Healtheon said it would use the money to fund the cash part of its recently announced acquisition of Envoy, the electronic transaction unit of Quintiles Transnational Corp.(QTRN) and as cash for general corporate purposes.

According to the latest public data reported to Morningstar, a tracker of mutual fund performance, Janus funds held 766,000 shares split between (JAENX)Janus Enterprise and (JAGTX)Janus Global Technology funds. Those shares gained a total of $2.44 million by midday trading.

Janus Capital is the holding company for Janus mutual funds, including (JAMRX)Janus Mercury and (JAVLX)Janus Twenty funds. Janus Capital has around $150 billion under management through more than 30 funds.

Neither party was immediately available for comment.

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