Whilst a cutting edge firm, by the early 1970s due to a number of problems - some self-inflicted, others no fault of their own - Lockheed was in serious financial trouble, haemorrhaging money they had to turn to the US government and request a number of loan guarantees to keep from going insolvent. This lead to major debates with the Senate becoming deadlocked over whether to approve the guarantees and requiring the Vice President, Spiro Agnew, to cast the deciding vote in favour. Only three years later Textron Corporation apparently approached Lockheed proposing a takeover with discussions progressing substantially and an agreement for them to pay $85 million for a 45% stake being agreed, the deal being contingent on Lockheed successfully drumming up 45 more orders for their L-1011 Tri-Star airliner in the next six months or so which they were unable to do and the deal falling through.
Now $85 million, even in the 1970s, seems like steal for 45% of one of the major US defence contractors, albeit one heavily in debt. So supposing for a moment that a foreign company were to decide that buying Lockheed would be a good way of gaining access to the US market and tabled an offer of $190 million for the whole lot. Do people think something like that would be allowed to go through? By the mid-1990s things like this occurred whilst requiring proxy boards made up of US citizens or Special Security Agreements if relations are good, but that's roughly twenty years later. Would something like that be achievable or, since this is to an extent pre-globalisation, would economic nationalism torpedo any chance of an agreement do people think?