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Frank StantonFrank Stanton
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The call committee, on the basis of that book--or anything else for that matter--just asks questions, and then after due process, so to speak, the vote is taken and the call is made.

I've been a member of the call committee from time to time, and to the best of my knowledge, I have no recollection of any call that was made that wasn't unanimous. I think on one occasion we asked for more information, but there it ultimately was unanimous. There wasn't any question about that.

Q:

What kind of investments would you be--first of all, who looks for the potential investments? Who looks for the potential companies that you would buy?

Stanton:

Who looks for them?

Q:

Yes.

Stanton:

Well, there's a group of young managing partners in the investment group in AEA, which is active in looking and spotting opportunities. But all the members of the group spot opportunities. For example, I've seen some things that I thought deserved to be looked into. Frequently you don't know whether they're privately held or--these are, for the most part, small companies, and if I see something that I think looks like it might be potentially an AEA candidate, I used to call Carl Hess and say: “Carl, do you know anything about this company?”

He'd say: “Yes, we looked at it ten years ago.” Or we did this or did that. Or he'll say: “We'll get into it right away, and have a look and see.” Frequently, there's no way to get into it. It's





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