Inverness Medical Innovations has historically been seen as a somewhat disjointed business in need of greater focus and cohesion, and recently the company has been filling gaps via the acquisition and integration of different companies. Most of the acquisitions have been small and have gone largely unnoticed - until the big and very public acquisition of Biosite, followed by that of Cholestech. Since the acquisition of Cholestech, Inverness has made seven further deals, four in October 2007: the acquisitions of Bio-Stat Healthcare, PanBio, interrelated financing and licensing deals with StatSure Diagnostic Systems, and an agreement to acquire Alere Medical. This article discusses the possible reasoning behind these deals, and the direction that the company is taking.