Bradley Smith

The Biden administration sanctioned a Syrian conglomerate on Thursday, accusing it of using oil proceeds to fund Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps-Quds Force and Houthi militants.

In recent years, we have seen healthcare information technology (IT) companies emerge as a leading investment focus for private equity. Healthcare IT has showcased resilience and steady growth even as other healthcare sectors, like healthcare services, faced evolving regulatory challenges. While Healthcare IT faces its own set of regulatory hurdles — especially around data security, interoperability, and compliance — these differ from the direct care and reimbursement complexities that healthcare services providers confront.

When the time comes for you to sell your durable medical equipment (DME) company, there will be a lot of work required to go from putting the company on the market to completing a successful transaction.

A few months ago, I joined VERTESS as a Managing Director. I became a member of this great team because I want to help healthcare business owners successfully sell their companies.

The stars are aligning for owners of home health agencies. After experiencing years of disruptions, uncertainty and more challenges than we want to list, 2025 is shaping up to be a banner year for home health operators—especially for owners that plan to sell their companies this coming year.

Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles are back to face off against the mysterious Shadow and the not-dead Dr. Robotnik (did anyone really think he died at the end of part 2; I’ll be more surprised if he ever stays dead). The plot moves about as fast as Sonic with plenty of room for action, adventure, suspense, a heart-breaking back story, and a dance break (am I kidding and/or exaggerating? Go find out). Fragile alliances are formed, and allegiances are tested and pushed to their limits. And they throw in a red herring or two to try to keep you guessing, though not really.

Liberals will try to silence the opposition by doxxing private citizens information and exposing donors to harassment.

Ghosts of Red Ridge is a low-budget western with a slightly supernatural twist. I initially thought the “Ghosts” in the title would be a metaphor of some sort, which could fit one or two characters, but I was pleasantly surprised to also find actual ghosts as the movie dips into horror movie level creepiness for a few scenes; low-budget horror, maybe, but it still gave me some chills. Aside from that, there is not much to highlight in this film. The story is interesting, but the dialogue and some of the acting leaves a lot to be desired and the non-“gave me chills” scenes quite often moved at a snail’s pace. Overall, it is not a terrible movie, but it is also not one I will likely watch again.

The M+A market continued to struggle to rebound this year after a slow 2023, undoubtedly due in part to continuing high interest rates and the pending election. Straightforward deals that, in another year, would have successfully closed did not, while more complex deals were met with various roadblocks. However, with interest rates slowly coming down and the election results in, all signs are pointing to a rosier outlook in 2025 for M+A activity. VERTESS is excited to share its annual year-end review and future outlook for each healthcare vertical in which we operate. We are encouraged going into the new year and are looking forward to what 2025 has to offer!

Wolf Man has great visual effects and some effective (even if predictable) jump scares. It is supported by interesting premises and has a perfect isolated setting. And the actors play their parts decently enough. However, the overall story is a bit dull and lacks much suspense. Perhaps I have seen too many horror films or had a busy day before seeing the film, but there were a few points when I wanted to close my eyes and take a nap (I might’ve done that if I were watching at home instead of a crowded theater), while other scenes did have me wondering what would happen next.