Quest Strengthens Its Hand

Quest Diagnostics' purchase of American Medical Laboratories for $500 million in cash (including assumption of $160 million in debt) is one of a string of acquisitions made by large national laboratories in recent years. While it is by no means Quest's biggest or most strategically critical deal, it gives the nation's largest clinical laboratory a presence in two markets in which it was weak or had no presence, and shores up its rapidly growing esoteric testing business. The deal also eliminates a competitor.