Germany considers protecting firms from foreign takeovers-newspaper

Berlin: The German Economy Ministry wants to protect high tech companies in Germany from unwanted takeovers, especially from state-owned and partly state-owned companies in non-European countries, a German newspaper reported on Sunday. Welt am Sonntag (WamS) said Deputy Economy Minister Matthias Machnig had in the past week sent to members of the German government a paper containing six key points for reviewing investment at the European Union level. The paper foresees wide-reaching rights for the EU and national governments to prohibit company acquisitions by investors in non-EU countries, the newspaper said. Asked about the newspaper report, a spokesman for the Economy Ministry said he would not comment on internal government working papers.