I have three cardinal rules when it comes to acquisitions.

1. We do not necessarily acquire established revenue streams to add to our own. Instead, we acquire promising small product lines that we grow into Logitech businesses.

2. We have never bought anything in areas we have not tried ourselves. We did webcams before buying QuickCam, and we did speakers before buying Labtec. In both cases we learned a lot - way more than you can get from an investment banking presentation.

3. We are too small to juggle multiple corporate brands and maintain separate organizations. Therefore we do not acquire (and pay for!) established company brands. If I had another bit of universal advice, it would be that these kinds of business decisions should be based on a deep and brutally honest understanding of where your company adds value to an acquisition - what it's good at and what it's not. Otherwise, an acquisition won't drive growth or profits.