Fred's recently beefed up its board to show the Federal Trade Commission that it could acquire as many as 1,200 Rite Aid stores that the agency may have ordered divested as a condition of antitrust clearance for the Walgreens-Rite Aid deal. The acquisition would have roughly tripled the size of Fred's, which has 601 pharmacy and general merchandise stores. Fred's stock surged in December after Walgreens announced it was offering to sell Rite Aid stores as a condition of getting regulatory approval for the deal.