The Federal Trade Commission quietly signaled tougher scrutiny of serial acquisitions — even when individual transactions don’t pose competitive harms — in a partisan policy statement unveiled Thursday, November 10. Partners Andy Lacy and Arman Oruc, who are both co-chairs of the Antitrust and Competition practice and specialists in private equity transactions, told The Deal the verbiage could apply to rollups, in which a PE buyer acquires targets in an industry or niche that are later combined. "There has been a lot of rhetoric about serial acquisitions in tech and by PE, and PE in healthcare spaces especially, but it has broader application," Lacy said. “It’s certainly going to create additional areas of investigation and potential hurdles for certain business areas,” Oruc added.