Subject: Re: Cerro Fabricated Products
Depending on whether it was chosen as an independent acquisition or came bundled with a larger company, it might matter.
During the early 1980's, during a trip to France, I noticed a newfangled type of parking meter. You only needed one per block; you put money in and it spit out a paper ticket, with an expiration time, which you put on your dashboard. The manufacture’s name, Schlumberger was cast into the enclosure.

What a cool idea! So, I called up my stock broker (yup, you actually placed orders over the phone back then) and told John Locke (his real name) that I wanted to buy 100 shares of a French company named Schlumberger (which I pronounced as if it rhymed with hamburger) whose parking meters were going to take over the world. He advised me to forget the idea as he was the kind of guy who wanted to keep an eye on the companies he owned (meaning all US). But I was not to be put off.

When the company's annual report showed up, it had an oil rig on the cover. I leafed through it, page by page - and no sign of parking meters. It turns out that it was a pimple on an instrument company which the company had acquired.

While I happened to make money on the stock, it was by dumb luck - and the experience taught me the importance of doing due diligence before purchasing anything.

Jeff