Foreign firms make takeover overtures to 17%...

Foreign firms make takeover overtures to 17% of the largest U. S. companies last year, but only a handful of the approaches grew into a formal buyout bid, according to a survey by Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management. The survey also found that two-thirds of the 95 chief executives who participated said they were more interested in joint ventures with foreign companies than they were in selling out. The findings were based on a survey of the chief executives of 95 U. S. corporations with annual sales of at least $1 billion.