Despite his record (which includes a 5.04 e.r.a.), the one-time 20-game winner could be an attractive acquisition for a contending team.

"If we end up being an attractive acquisition, that may not be a home run," he said.

"In a market like this," he said, "there may be other highly strategic, financially attractive acquisitions" that Dow Jones might make.

Despite its problems, Utah Power could be an attractive acquisition, several analysts said.

"It would be an attractive acquisition for someone looking to fill a hole in their domestic-equity growth funds."

In the past, according to many analysts, Pearson sometimes moved too slowly in pursuing attractive acquisitions or was outbid.

"I thought of us in more prosaic terms - it was an opportunity to make an attractive acquisition on our terms, to strengthen the company long-term."

By 1980, we had grown to $70 million, which made us a very attractive acquisition.

To some general managers, Kovalev may be an attractive acquisition.

That's all she was to me, an attractive acquisition.