ClinicServer, a Saint John-based company that helps health clinics digitize their operations and records, has closed its deal to be taken over by Biosign Technologies Inc., a publicly traded Toronto company with complementary businesses.

The buyer said on New Year’s Eve it would pay $1.96 million – all in stock except for $75,000 in cash -- for the Saint John company. The deal, which closed Monday, allows ClinicServer to retain its brand and New Brunswick headquarters and operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Biosign.

Biosign, whose stock trades on the Toronto Venture Exchange, provides cloud-based administrative solutions for the home care industry. Last May, it announced a partnership with ClinicServer so they could roll out the Toronto company’s Pulsewave product to ClinicServer’s 250-plus physiotherapy clinic customers across Canada.

ClinicServer CEO Chris Boudreau said in an interview that the two company’s products proved to complement one another completely so the best way forward was to combine the companies. What’s more, Biosign operates in a market growing far more strongly than the broader healthcare market, so there are advantages in combing the companies.

“This was a complete no-brainer,” said Boudreau. “The target markets are all complementary and we offer products that can build on each other.”

He added that the deal is leading to growth at the Saint John office and that ClinicServer is now in the process of doubling its seven-person staff.

“There is going to be a huge investment in terms of resources into what we have here,” said Boudreau. “So it is definitely good news for New Brunswick.”

ClinicServer helps health clinics use cloud-based software for scheduling, billing, maintaining patient records and other common tasks.  The company says its basic service can produce a 5 percent increase in each professional’s revenues by allowing him or her to see more patients, and the premium service produces an 18 percent revenue increase.

The origins of the company date back to 1999 when Paul Kasdan, now the Chief Strategic Officer, began to develop software that would streamline the processes in his orthotics clinic. Boudreau joined 11 years later, and they began to spin out their product to the so-called allied healthcare field – that is, clinics that meet patients’ needs outside mainstream health providers.  They secured $1 million in angel funding from across the country in 2010.

BioSign recently released a strategy statement outlining how it will use the acquired company to accelerate its own sales growth.  For example, it said it will create a unique service that automates the processing and delivery of allied health benefit claims from insurance companies.