Late yesterday, Johnson & Johnson announced that they have acquired HealthMedia, an online health & wellness service.  HealthMedia positions itself as an online health coaching service and sells this service to employers (eBay, J&J, etc.) and payers (BCBS plans, Aetna, etc.). In their press release, J&J state that HealthMedia is the base for their “Wellness & Prevention Platform.”

This move by J&J is reflective of recent statements by senior execs that they intend to expand their business into new markets.  Clearly, with this move they are looking to the prevention market as the next opportunity.  One need only look at most trending data to see that this is a market with strong growth potential, albeit in the very early stages, particularly for online solutions.

But what really intrigues us about this acquisition is that J&J is one of the few companies in the market that has significant resources at its disposal to do a roll-up of a number of Health 2.0-type applications (something we commented on last week that is sorely needed in the Health 2.0 market) and provide a compelling value proposition.

Another thing J&J has going for it is consumer trust, and in healthcare, that is serious currency.

If J&J intends to indeed do a roll-up, which be believe they will to fully fill-out their Wellness & Prevention Platform, they will become a serious competitor to WebMD’s dominance in the payer and employer markets.

Stay tuned, as this is but one of many acquisitions that J&J will need to make to provide a complete and compelling solution.

Which leaves us with the $1M question:

Who’s now on J&J’s acquisition radar?