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| <NonNumbericText> <table cellpadding="0" style="BORDER-COLLAPSE: collapse" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="100%"> <tr> <td valign="top" align="left" width="4%"><font style="FONT-FAMILY: Times New Roman" size="2"><b>(2)</b></font></td> <td valign="top" align="left"><font style="FONT-FAMILY: Times New Roman" size="2"><b>Significant business acquisitions </b></font></td></tr></table> <p style="MARGIN-TOP: 6px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; TEXT-INDENT: 4%"><font style="FONT-FAMILY: Times New Roman" size="2">Our long-held acquisition strategy is to purchase businesses with consistent earning power, good returns on equity and able and honest management at sensible prices. We had no significant business acquisitions in 2009. </font></p> <p style="MARGIN-TOP: 6px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; TEXT-INDENT: 4%"><font style="FONT-FAMILY: Times New Roman" size="2">During 2008, we acquired approximately 64% of Marmon Holdings, Inc. (“Marmon”), a private company owned by trusts for the benefit of members of the Pritzker Family of Chicago, for approximately $4.8 billion in the aggregate. Marmon is an international association of approximately 130 manufacturing and service businesses that operate independently within diverse business sectors. Under the terms of the purchase agreement, we will acquire the remaining equity interests in Marmon between 2011 and 2014 for consideration to be based on the future earnings of Marmon. We also acquired several other relatively small businesses during 2008. Consideration paid for all businesses acquired in 2008 was approximately $6.1 billion. </font></p> <p style="MARGIN-TOP: 12px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; TEXT-INDENT: 4%"><font style="FONT-FAMILY: Times New Roman" size="2">In 2007, we acquired TTI, Inc., a privately held electronic components distributor headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas. TTI, Inc. is a leading distributor specialist of passive, interconnect and electromechanical components. Effective April 1, 2007, we acquired the intimate apparel business of VF Corporation. We also acquired several other relatively smaller businesses during 2007. Consideration paid for all businesses acquired in 2007 was approximately $1.6 billion. </font></p> </NonNumbericText> |
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