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February 7, 2008 - Craig Blum has been appointed the sole portfolio manager to the portions of Masters’ Select Equity and Masters’ Select Focused Opportunities that are sub-advised by TCW Investment Management Company. Blum had been co-portfolio manager with Steve Burlingame. Last week TCW announced that Burlingame had unexpectedly resigned. We view this as a significant departure and we will be reviewing TCW’s status as sub-advisor on Masters’ Select Equity and Masters’ Select Focused Opportunities. TCW manages 20% of Masters’ Select Equity and 33% of Masters’ Select Focused Opportunities.
As we re-assess TCW’s status it is important to note that we continue to think highly of Craig Blum and the supporting research team (we were at TCW’s offices the prior week updating our due diligence on members of the analyst team). Moreover, because of TCW’s very long-term investment approach, we don’t believe there will be any material short-term portfolio impact. Our review will be carefully considered and may take several weeks or possibly longer. At this point we have had a lengthy discussion with Blum and have obviously not made a decision. If we decide to make a change we will consider other growth managers we know well and respect and possibly some that will require new due diligence work. For this reason it could be several months before we make a decision (though it could also be much sooner).
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