Aetna CVS Merger

[rbaker]

In addition to the Essilor and Luxottica merger we now have a merger between Aetna and CVS. Do you think that the playing field is changing?

[jpways]

I thought the playfield had already changed with all the hospital mergers and hospitals buying private practices. It's just happening a little later in the healthcare field than in other industries. The most direct comparisons I see to our industry is the telephone and oil/gas industry. There used to be three big companies AO, Bell Systems, and Standard Oil that were broken up into smaller companies due to antitrust laws and we're slowing seeing mergers happening that those industries that are slowly building up companies that have nearly as firm of a strangle hold on their respective markets as their predecessors, but on an international scale now.

[rbaker]

Do you have any information on the American Optical antitrust that you mention in the post above. In particular, I am interested in the Consent Decree.