Acquisitions play a vital role for Quest Diagnostics to ensure growth, particularly by targeting hospital outreach purchases and smaller, independent labs that are immediately accretive. The company has engaged in a string of deals lately that meet its criteria for growth, profitability and returns, and also enables DGX to expand into strategic growth areas. Last month, Quest Diagnostics announced a definitive agreement with OMERS to acquire LifeLabs, its reference testing business partner, which provides community laboratory tests for millions of Canadians.