It would be great if the british had sold it to an american company but no american company placed a bid. But that won't stop lou dobbs from going nuts.
I read here, on another thread, that the bidding only lasted 20 days and that American companies knew nothing about it? Is that true?
I don't know about public knowledge, but the regulators have had a good deal of heads-up.
a bipartisan group of seven House and Senate members demanded that an interagency task force on foreign investments, which approved the transaction, examine it more closely. ...Although the administration brushed off worry about that deal, congressional opposition to the Chinese takeover of Unocal Corp., the international oil firm, helped transfer ownership of Unocal to another U.S. oil giant. That controversy also inspired plans by powerful members of Congress to tighten the 1988 law that created CFIUS.
Talk of major changes in the law has subsided, but the Dubai Ports World deal could reignite the effort. If the administration is perceived as not vetting the deal carefully enough, congressional skeptics of foreign investment may feel obliged to take matters into their own hands, said Todd Malan, executive director of the Organization for International Investment, which represents the U.S. subsidiaries of many foreign companies. Mr. Malan was especially concerned because CFIUS did not conduct a 45-day investigation on top of the initial 30-day review that it usually gives to foreign purchases of U.S. businesses. ...
"We have a relationship with this company because they have been a participant in some of our cargo and port security measures," Mr. Baker said. "Remember, our interest in port security extends well beyond the United States. If we discover weapons of mass destruction inside a U.S. port, we've already lost. So we do a lot of screening abroad, and our general experience with this company has been positive."
The extra 45-day investigation wasn't necessary, Mr. Baker said, because the company approached CFIUS in late November ...
The following is the CFIUS fact sheet. CFIUS is the acronyms for the committee that approved the sale. (the leaders from CFIUS are currently Bush appointed persons).
You can get all your info concerning the process here:
http://www.ofii.org/facts_figures/cfius.cfm