Word: araskog
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What particularly rattles Chairman Rand Araskog, 53, is that the plotters could be getting help from some of his own colleagues. Last week Edward Gerrity Jr., ITT's public relations chief since 1961, admitted that the company had suspended him after accusing him of feeding bad news to the financial press. Sources at the Securities and Exchange Commission, meanwhile, confirmed that the agency is investigating whether someone outside the company is breeding rumors about ITT in order to make an illicit stock profit...
Under Empire Builder Harold Geneen, ITT devoured 275 companies and went from annual sales of $765 million in 1959 to $17 billion in 1979. But since Geneen's departure, the company's performance has slowed from go-go to nogo. Araskog has tried to revive ITT by shedding more than 60 subsidiaries, worth about $1.5 billion, but the company remains dangerously short of cash...
...officials are probing whether someone in the company helped the unrest by supplying names of unhappy stockholders to other dissidents. Gerrity, for one, has privately criticized Araskog's leadership. But the publicist, who suffered a heart attack on the day of the dividend cut, denies his involvement. Says he: "If I was orchestrating this, I must have been doing it from my hospital...
...Araskog hopes to strengthen ITT by raising more cash. Last week the company agreed to sell parts of its Eason Oil subsidiary for $240 million. But Araskog's time is running short. Two weeks ago, Minneapolis Investor Irwin Jacobs snapped up more than 3 million of ITT's 139 million outstanding shares. No one knows whether Jacobs has a power grab in mind, but his usual prescription for laggard companies like ITT is clearly spelled out in his nickname: "Irv the Liquidator...
...analysts and industry experts disagree on how successful AT&T will be. In general, the new AT&T is expected to excel at its traditional business of long-distance telephone service. But it may run into trouble when it tries to take on other markets. Says ITT Chairman Rand Araskog...