AOL co-founder's Revolution Health acquires HealthTalk

First AOL, next a revolution.

AOL co-founder Steve Case announced Wednesday his online health and wellness company, Revolution Health Group, has acquired HealthTalk, pushing his company into the ranks of the second-largest health information site on the Net.

The deal is designed to bolster Revolution's offerings beyond the health and wellness category and into the area of supplying content on chronic conditions. The acquisition marks yet more activity in the online health care arena, which has seen not only mergers but also the birth of medical and health-related search engines, according to American Medical News. There's also been a surge in the number of Web sites relating to health, well-being and care, such as Caring.com.

HealthTalk's site covers a range of chronic illnesses, from rheumatoid arthritis to Alzheimer's to cancers to colitis. The multimedia site, which includes original content with medical experts and interactive programming, draws more than 1 million unique visitors per month. The site is accessed by more than 500,000 members, who receive targeted health information.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Revolution Health Group, with its latest acquisition, reaches more than 12 million unique visitors a month, putting it behind only the WebMD Health Network, which generates 40.8 million unique visitors per month.

HealthTalk will operate as a site within the Revolution Health Network, which includes CarePages.com and RevolutionHealth.com. The Revolution Network is also affiliated with drugstore.com and SparkPeople.com.