home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- <text id=92TT1566>
- <title>
- July 13, 1992: C'est Non!
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1992
- July 13, 1992 Inside the World's Last Eden
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- THE WEEK, Page 20
- BUSINESS
- C'est Non!
- </hdr><body>
- <p>The Pentagon nixes the sale of LTV to the French on secrecy
- grounds
- </p>
- <p> The decision hardly came as a surprise to executives of the
- French defense contractor Thomson-CSF. For months the U.S.
- defense community had been debating the wisdom of allowing the
- company, 60% owned by the French government, to buy Dallas-based
- LTV Corp.'s missile business. The issue was resolved by the
- Treasury Department's interagency Committee on Foreign
- Investment in the United States, which responded on the eve of
- the Fourth of July with a resounding "Non!" The panel voted to
- recommend to President Bush this week a rejection of
- Thomson-CSF's $300 million offer, based on widespread concern
- that the sale would compromise LTV's considerable top-secret
- high technology and threaten national security interests. The
- action was taken on the same day that votes in both the House
- Appropriations Committee and the Senate expressed disapproval
- of the sale. Anticipating rejection, Thomson-CSF officials have
- been scrambling for some time to put together a new offer --
- with American partners, including Raytheon, Northrop or Loral.
- One hitch is that Thomson-CSF placed a $20 million guarantee
- with LTV for a completed sale by July 31. A new arrangement
- would depend on the readiness of LTV's creditors to let this
- deadline slide while a new U.S. review process took place.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
-