InVision Sees End of Tunnel

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All's well that ends well, goes the saying. And I suspect General Electric (NYSE: GE) would agree today. It's been nearly eight months since the world's largest company announced it would buy out tiny bomb detector InVision (Nasdaq: INVN) for about $50 a share. (Incidentally, InVision was first "discovered" here by Fool Daniel Hong two months earlier -- and $14-a-share cheaper). On the other hand, it's been four months since GE discovered, in the course of doing its pre-acquisition due diligence, that InVision brought with it a serious blind spot: the risk of fines and regulatory complications arising from the little company's possible violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).

That's a name you should get familiar with, if you haven't already. As business goes global, and as U.S. companies do business in corners of that globe that don't exactly frown on the use of "green grease" to smooth the awarding of contracts, more and more companies are falling afoul of this anti-corruption law. It was the FCPA that derailedLockheed Martin's (NYSE: LMT) acquisition of Titan (NYSE: TTN) a few months ago. And the FCPA again that put the hurt on GTECH's (NYSE: GTK) stock price back in August. And what got IBM (NYSE: IBM) in trouble in Korea, and Lucent (NYSE: LU) in trouble, first in Saudi Arabia, then in China? You guessed it: the FCPA.

But for GE, the FCPA is out of sight, out of mind at last. InVision announced yesterday that it has agreed to pay an $800,000 fine to the U.S. Department of Justice to settle all charges under the FCPA. In exchange, the company will accept responsibility for "specified actions or omissions of employees," but not admit any actual wrongdoing. The company will also proceed to conclude a separate settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission of that agency's own investigation of the sections of the FCPA under its jurisdiction.

In the end, we're probably talking about a total of just about $1 million in penalties. A small price to pay, indeed, to ensure that the company's sale to GE will go through, netting InVision's shareholders $150 million more than their company had been worth before GE decided to buy it.

What happens when an FCPA story doesn't work out quite so prettily? Read all about it in:

• Titan Tumbles
• Titan to Lockheed: Buy Me, Please!
• Lockheed's Titanic Markdown
• Titan's Hidden Assets
• Titanic Troubles for Lockheed?

Fool contributor Rich Smith owns no shares in any company mentioned in this article.