International Business Machines Corporation appears to be on the hunt for buyers to sell its medical digital tool, Watson Health, at the cost of more than $1 billion.

In April 2015, IBM unveiled Watson Health amid much fanfare. Watson, IBM's artificial intelligence platform, was expected to be put to work on healthcare issues.

The telemedicine tool is said to consist of healthcare data and analytics business Truven Health Analytics, population health company Phytel and medical imaging business Merge Healthcare.

The tech giant took well beyond $ 4 billion to build the telemedicine tool through a number of acquisitions, according to Axios.

Phytel and Explorys, two medical data firms, were the initial acquisitions. It was all part of a larger design. Merge Healthcare, a business that would deliver medical imaging data, received $1 billion next. Later, it would spend $2.6 billion on Truven Health Analytics, its most expensive acquisition. According to sources, it spent a total of $4 billion.

Earlier last year, IBM commenced to sell the division with Morgan Stanley leading the process. During the time, the division was reported to be generating nearly $ 1 billion in annual revenue, yet was considered unprofitable, as it began losing a lot of money.

By the end of 2021, IBM hooked up with BofA Securities to hunt down a buyer for the health division with bids being due last week and that IBM will be selecting the winner by the end of this month.

Arvind Krishna, CEO, IBM, assured that at times IBM has promised more than what it has delivered.

Watson was one of IBM's most high-profile ventures in recent years, and a huge bet on the booming healthcare sector, yet results were disappointing in part as physicians were reluctant to accept artificial intelligence.

IBM is looking into selling the unit to a private equity firm or an industry participant, as well as merging with a blank-check provider.