• CVS Health is in talks with health insurer Aetna about an acquisition, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
  • The deal would value Aetna at about $66 billion, or roughly $200 per share.
  • The news comes less than a year after a judge blocked Aetna's attempt to acquire rival insurer Humana on anticompetitive grounds.

CVS Health, the retail pharmacy giant, is in talks to purchase Aetna, one of the five large publicly traded health-insurance companies, according to a new report.
The Wall Street Journal's Dana Mattioli reported that CVS offered more than $200 per share of Aetna, which was at $160 a share before the news broke. The deal would be worth about $66 billion, according to the report.
Aetna previously agreed to buy rival insurer Humana for $34 billion, but that deal was blocked by the Department of Justice. A judge ruled in favor of the DOJ in January, saying that the combination of the two companies would have been anticompetitive.
An Aetna representative declined to comment on the report, telling Business Insider, "We don't comment on rumors or speculation."
A representative for CVS also declined to comment, saying, "We don’t comment on market rumors such as this."
Following the news, Aetna shares jumped about 11.5%, to $178.60 a share, as of 4:15 p.m. ET. CVS shares slipped by roughly 3% to $72.60 a share.
In 2016, CVS acquired Target's pharmacy business, which included 1,660 pharmacies in 47 states. If a deal with Aetna materializes, it would be the biggest M&A in the US in 2017.

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