A few months prior to the acquisition announcement, Mr. Magaña and his closest managers had worked gathering historical data and preparing forecasts regarding Cargill Seeds Mexico. This information was requested by Cargill Hybrid Seeds International to prepare the prospect, to valuate the business unit, and to promote the sale of the international seeds division. Although a time consuming task, this job was led by Mr. Magaña and prepared exclusively by Cargill employees, no external consulting companies were hired for the project. First and mid-level managers were directly involved in the project, and the “seed business” did not receive the attention it needed during those months. An example of the toll the timely preparation took on the seed business was that the first time in its history, Cargill Seeds Mexico failed to submit on time in full its budgets and business reports to the Cargill International Long Range Planning Committee (LRPC) in April 1998.