The idea that if a company that is seen as a national is sold to a foreign firm, it will be lost for all time is a decidedly silly one, and the patriotic tears that attended Matsushita Electric Industrial Co’s takeover of MCA Inc were almost certainly unnecessary: it has been widely bruited for some time that Matsushita and Sony Corp were having second thoughts about the wisdom of their vast investments in showbiz, and that they would like to bring in partners to share the carrying cost, and now the New York Times hears from executives with knowledge of the talks that cable television king John Malone, who contols both Tele-Communications Inc and Liberty Media Corp, has approached Matsushita and is looking at buying a 50% stake in MCA, which owns Universal Pictures, Universal Television and the MCA records arm, late yesterday, Matsushita was insisting it has no plans to sell any of MCA.
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