In a recent survey, two hundred and fifty global executives involved in merger and acquisitions admitted that there were breakdowns in their due –diligence processes, and half these individuals reported that this resulted in important issues not being detected. Amongst the most common mistakes they reported was a failure to understand that targeted companies had “perfumed” themselves for sale just before they were acquired (Harding and Rovit, 2004). For example, in the acquisition of Rubbermaid by Newell, Rubbermaid used a classic time pressure tactic and gave Newell only three weeks to perform its due –diligence. Instead of negotiating a more reasonable time period, Newell accepted the short deadline and expedited the process. It was only much later that Newell discovered that Rubbermaid “perfumed” its balance sheet and inflated its worth before closing the deal by stuffing the distribution channels with heavy promotion and deep discounts.