An amazing amount of xenophobia and plain old hysteria surfacing...

An amazing amount of xenophobia and plain old hysteria surfacing on the TOL t/o. There is absolutely nothing special about TOL. It operates in a very fragmented market (think Aust Post, DHL, TNT, UPS, etc, let alone the plethora of local based services) and has no monopoly advantage. Its operations overseas have even greater competition.

Moreover, it was built up from a pissant local trucking company with pretty low turnover and now will be sold to the Japanese at a good return for the effort in building it up. The hurdles for entry into the logistics business are pretty low, compared to many other enterprises, so it's position in the market is tenuous at best. Australia is capital poor, so having someone pay over the odds for this business should not cause much soul searching.

Of course, on a philosophical level, it would have been better if AP took them over (or even TOL offer to take over AP!) but, to repeat, Australia is capital poor and the feds aren't, or shouldn't be, in the business of commercial business. Our history of turning a dollar on home grown developments has built this country. Maybe it might change one day, but not in the foreseeable future, and certainly not to the satisfaction of shareholders.

Finally, the TOL t/o should not be seen as losing a business, but actually keeping it (with all its attendant employment, paid taxes, etc) as well as a $6.5B injection into the Australian economy. At least some of that money will be used to advance enterprises that would otherwise not have been developed. That can't be a bad thing.