Word: itt
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...1960s and 1970s, ITT was the most voracious of a new breed of corporate giants that came to be known as conglomerates. Under the leadership of Harold Geneen, Wall Street's original Pac-Man, ITT gobbled up more than 275 companies; at one time the corporation produced everything from hydroelectric turbines to Twinkies. At its 1980 peak, ITT had annual revenues of more than $18 billion and was the 13th largest U.S. corporation. But as the company became more and more bloated, its debt surged, while profits and the value of its stock sagged...
After taking over from Geneen in 1980, Chairman Rand Araskog tentatively began to shed some of the conglomerate's less profitable divisions; last week he announced that ITT was going on the corporate equivalent of a crash diet. In the coming months, it plans to sell more than a dozen subsidiaries with assets of $1.7 billion. That will be a 12% slash in the company's current assets of $14.1 billion. Officials disclosed only a partial list of the units for sale. They include Eason Oil, the Bobbs-Merrill publishing house and O.M. Scott & Sons, which makes Turf Builder lawn...
...ITT's divestiture plan is the most dramatic evidence so far that the golden days of corporate empire building are fading. Several other conglomerates are pursuing similar slim-down programs. Since 1983, Gulf & Western Industries has unloaded 46 companies, including its sugar and hotel businesses. In 1984, Avco got out of real estate and stopped making industrial lasers and farm equipment. R.J. Reynolds last year decided to focus once again on consumer products such as cigarettes and soft drinks and sold its shipping and energy businesses...
...reaction of Co-Captain Steve Ezeji-Okoye told the whole story. While the Northeastern runners were prancing around the ITT track, the Crimson middle distance standout was sitting on the infield banging his head against the ground...
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...