[hedgetrimmer]

Everyone forget the big Japanese buying spree over here not that many years ago

They bought before Bush I's EO, and if I recall correctly they bought golf courses, resorts and the Rockefeller center. Japan did not purchase strategic assets, it was forbidden at the time. They also purchased shares in some silicon valley companies, but because of federal regulation, had to remain minority owners, if I recall correctly.

[herkbird]

It's real interesting when a foreign company, even one in Canada, buys an American company that is working on top secret black military programs. The owners of the company have no idea what they are building. No control on what money is being spent, the government says damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead while the new owner sit out of the loop scratching their butts. Only when the program is declassified and the government makes a fixed base payment do they know if they are making money on such project. Most foreign companies learn quickly that this is a company to avoid until the black programs are all completed. It can make a really smart company look very stupid real quick, and cost many people their jobs for recommending their company owners to purchase said company. The people who worked on the Black project just laughed at all the big wheels among the new owners who were dying to know what was going on in these black rooms.
I worked just outside the door of a Black project, and when they tell these people to not talk, they sure as hell mean it. They install many black curtains to limit any kind of looking into the room. The security is very tight. I remember getting kicked out of one documentation room where I was making documentation for my equipment. I had to use an alternate declassified document room or have people who did the documents, make all my equipment documents I would need to maintain my equipment once it was moved out into the field at its' own facility.