"In the past five years, 2,331 U.S. firms with a total value of $772.3 billion were purchased by foreign buyers, according to data provider Capital IQ (like BusinessWeek, Capital IQ is a unit of The McGraw-Hill Companies (MHP)). In 2007, 614 U.S. firms, valued at $294.4 billion, were acquired by foreign entities, up from 226 firms valued at $49.6 billion in 2003." Of course, deals are controversial only when the buyers are Arabs. (thanks Nabeel)