Walgreen has been providing home health services for 30 years, but it nearly doubled its footprint through acquisitions in the past two years. The effort was led by former chief executive Jeffrey Rein, who acquired home infusion and specialty pharmacy provider Option Care Inc. for $850 million in cash in July 2007. A year later, Walgreen bought Express Script Inc.'s (NYSE:ESRX) CuraScript Infusion Pharmacy division for an undisclosed amount. These deals were bolstered by a handful of smaller transactions.

Rein's abruptly left the company in October, two days after it dropped its $2.8 billion bid for Longs Drug Store Corp. (CVS Caremark Corp. [NYSE:CVS] bought the chain.) As we reported at the time, it appeared that Rein's aggressive dealmaking may have been too much for Walgreen's shareholders. It didn't help that the drugstore chain experienced its first quarterly decline in 10 years under Reins.

Still, the company is following his lead in home infusion and respiratory services. In addition to the Vanderbilt JV, Walgreen in May acquired the home infusion business of Air Products Healthcare for an undisclosed amount. - Suzanne Stevens