In considering its proposed statement of financial accounting standards on business combinations, the FASB received numerous comment letters. Many of these letters addressed the FASB's proposed adoption of the economic unit concept as a valuation basis for less-than- 100-percent acquisitions. A sampling of these letters includes the following observations: Bob Laux, Microsoft: Microsoft agrees with the Board that the principles underlying standards should strive to reflect the underlying economics of transactions and events. However, we do not believe the Board's conclusion that recognizing the entire economic value of the acquiree, regardless of the ownership interest in the acquiree at the acquisition date, reflects the underlying economics. Patricia A. Little, Ford Motor Company: We agree that recognizing 100 percent of the fair value of the acquiree is appropriate. We believe that this is crucial in erasing anomalies which were created when only the incremental ownership acquired was fair valued and the minority interest was reflected at its carryover basis. Sharilyn Gasaway, Alltell Corporation: One of the underlying principles