Solstas Laboratory Partners, a fast-growing medical and diagnostic laboratory based in High Point, will be acquired by Quest Diagnostics in a deal valued at about $570 million.

Quest (NYSE: DGX), which is based in New Jersey and had 2012 revenues of $7.4 billion, is the largest clinical diagnostic provider in the world with about 41,000 employees. It is the main rival of Burlington's Laboratory Corp. of America (NYSE: LH), which had $5.7 billion in revenues in 2012 and has about 34,000 employees.

Solstas is much smaller than both, but it has been growing rapidly itself in recent years. In 2012, it announced plans to invest $11.6 million and create as many as 500 jobs over five years in High Point to the 720 it had at the time, one of the city's biggest recent job creation projects. A spokesman was not able to provide updated local job figures immediately Wednesday morning.

Solstas' strength in the Southeast and its "broad and innovative" menu of tests and lab services was the main attraction for Quest, said Quest CEO Steve Rusckowski.

"This combination will translate into better health care for the region because it will improve access to innovative, cost-effective diagnostic information services for patients, physicians and hospitals."

For Solstas, the deal will align Solstas with a dominant industry player. Solstas was founded in 1991 and has seen significant growth by acquisition itself, including a 2011 merger with Greensboro's Select Diagnostics. Its recent employee growth trend was interrupted last fall, when it cut about 76 jobs from about 4,000 it has in its 11-state territory due to government reimbursement reductions and other dynamics.

Matt Evans covers technology, entrepreneurship, higher education and financial services. Contact him at (336) 370-2916.