For four months Swartwout and two other executives learned all they could about Plastron, reviewing reams of financial documents, meeting with its largest customers, talking to plant workers, hiring an environmental consultant to evaluate the site.

FORBES: The Race To Embrace

An odd way of kicking the tires, perhaps--unlike that of any of the seven previous potential buyers who visited privately held Plastron Industries, the maker of "bobbins, " thermoplastic parts for wound electronic components such as coils.

FORBES: The Race To Embrace