It will be tempting for analysts with nothing better to do these dog days of summer to speculate on the possibility of fallen angel Norsk Data A/S being acquired in the wake of its first half loss and manifest difficulties (CI No 994) – but any such speculation would be vain: under Norwegian securities laws, the company has to remain locally-controlled with over 50% of the votes in Norwegian hands unless it wants to enter into a friendly merger – which it doesn’t; the only way it would be open to a foreign takeover is if it were to become insolvent, and there’s no likelihood of that.