Apollo Global Management is in negotiations to acquire Johnson & Johnson’s DePuy Synthes orthopedics business in a transaction valued at around $20 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The discussions remain ongoing, and there is no guarantee they will result in a transaction. Other potential buyers could still emerge as Johnson & Johnson evaluates alternatives for separating the business.
DePuy Synthes makes products including hip, knee and shoulder implants, surgical instruments and other orthopedic technologies. The business generated approximately $9.3 billion in sales during 2025.
Johnson & Johnson announced in October 2025 that it intended to separate its Orthopaedics business as part of a broader effort to concentrate its MedTech portfolio around higher-growth and higher-margin markets.
The company initially targeted completion of the separation within approximately 18 to 24 months and said it would consider multiple potential structures.
A sale to Apollo would represent an alternative to spinning DePuy Synthes into an independent publicly traded company and would create one of the largest private equity healthcare transactions in recent years.
Johnson & Johnson has said that following the separation it plans to concentrate its businesses around six major growth areas: Oncology, Immunology, Neuroscience, Cardiovascular, Surgery and Vision.
The discussions also reflect Apollo’s continued pursuit of large healthcare assets as private capital firms seek businesses with established cash flows, global operations and opportunities for operational improvement.
