This presentation by the OECD Secretariat was made during the discussion “Serial Acquisitions and Industry Roll-ups” held at the 141st meeting of the OECD Competition Committee on 6 December 2023. More papers and presentations on the topic can be found out at oe.cd/sair. This presentation was uploaded with the author’s consent.

1. Serial acquisitions and
industry roll-ups
Competition Committee – 6 December 2023
Carolina Abate and Zoe Lyon
OECD Competition Division

2. Serial acquisitions: pattern and/or strategy based
on sequential acquisitions of a series of small
companies by the same firm over time, in the
same or adjacent markets, then consolidated into
a larger, potentially dominant, company
• Growing trend
• Debate around consolidation risks
1
Background

3. • Financial vs strategic buyers
• Growth as main driver
– To achieve economies of scale and scope
– To increase shareholder value
– To strengthen market power and consolidate the
industry
• Digital markets
3
The strategy

4. • Industries’ characteristics:
– Strong need for economies of scale
– Highly fragmented
– Profitable
– Numerous small homogeneous businesses
Examples: veterinary clinics, grocery retail,
dental practices, pharmacies, waste management,
funeral homes
4
The sectors

5. • Competitive harm might emerge only over time
following several successive transactions
• Harm risks going unaddressed:
– Individual transactions below thresholds
– In isolation, no sufficient impact to meet substantive test
• No consensus on enforcement gap
• Need for more ex-post evidence from markets target
of serial acquirers
4
Competitive harm