CATA says flood of foreign acquisitions false

The Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance (CATA) has released data it says refutes recent contentions that Canadian firms are being bought by foreign interests at a greater rate than Canadian companies acquiring non-domestic businesses. CATA says that between 1999 and 2003, Canadian software companies made foreign acquisitions whose value exceeded those of Canadian firms bought by foreign interests in both 2001 and 2003. In the electronics and electronic components industry, Statistics Canada data show that between 1997 and 2002 Canadian firms made 86 foreign acquisitions worth $53.8 billion, In comparison, foreign firms made 62 acquisitions of Canadian firms worth $30.6 billion in the same period. CATA released the data in response to published reports that there were no data on Canadian and foreign direct investment in the high-tech sector. It says the false impression was due to “ lack of awareness among some industry spokespeople”….