Govt involvement in company affairs

[[DHT]Osiris]

Question(s), as I'm genuinely curious about this and I'm not quite sure how to research it in-depth.. hoping some of our more active armchair politicians might have better information.

http://money.cnn.com/2017/09/13/technology/business/trump-lattice-china

Near as I can tell, this is an instance of the US President issuing an EO to halt the acquisition of an American company by a Chinese one, for 'national security concerns'.

Is this something that's ever happened before?
Is it legal/kosher for Government, specifically the executive branch, to be getting involved in the affairs of private organizations?
If there's a true national security concern, shouldn't it get investigated by the FBI/DHS (or whomever's jurisdiction this falls under) rather than have an EO issued by the president?
Does this set a bad precedent for a President to be EO-ing away any business transactions he doesn't like?
Am I completely over-blowing this/is there something I'm not seeing likely happening on the back-end to make this a warranted one-off situation?

 

[fskimospy]

Question(s), as I'm genuinely curious about this and I'm not quite sure how to research it in-depth.. hoping some of our more active armchair politicians might have better information.

http://money.cnn.com/2017/09/13/technology/business/trump-lattice-china

Near as I can tell, this is an instance of the US President issuing an EO to halt the acquisition of an American company by a Chinese one, for 'national security concerns'.

Is this something that's ever happened before?
Is it legal/kosher for Government, specifically the executive branch, to be getting involved in the affairs of private organizations?
If there's a true national security concern, shouldn't it get investigated by the FBI/DHS (or whomever's jurisdiction this falls under) rather than have an EO issued by the president?
Does this set a bad precedent for a President to be EO-ing away any business transactions he doesn't like?
Am I completely over-blowing this/is there something I'm not seeing likely happening on the back-end to make this a warranted one-off situation?

1) Yes it has happened before that the government has blocked foreign acquisitions on national security grounds.
2) I think it's kosher if those private organizations serve an important national security function.
3) It appears this determination came from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., which is the appropriate entity.
4) The president EO-ing away transactions he doesn't like would definitely be a really bad thing, but I'm not aware of evidence that took place here.