This morning's FINANCIAL TIMES reports ITT Corp is planning
to sell St. Louis-based ITT Financial loan/mortgage division for
between $3-4B, in order to raise revenue for a bid to purchase
NBC. The sale would bring ITT closer to the $5B which Walt
Disney has reportedly offered GE for the network. ITT also could
offer the financial division "in part exchange for NBC." GE's
Capital financial services offers services similar to ITT
Financial. ITT is interested in acquiring a network to balance
its operations among financial services, manufacturing, and
leisure and entertainment interests (Richard Tomkins, FINANCIAL
TIMES, 9/16). N.Y. POST's John Crudele reports ITT has also
looked at CBS. NBC is considered more valuable because of its
existing cable venture, CNBC, and solid GE stock which would
"hardly move" if NBC were sold (N.Y. POST, 9/16).
DIVERSITY OR DOUGH?: In a related piece, Lehman Brothers
analyst Phua Young said ITT's restructuring aims at moving "into
areas where they can get a higher (price to earnings ratio) in
the marketplace" (N.Y. POST, 9/16). ITT's stock declined
$1.50/share yesterday at 80.125, with "very heavy" trading of
3.65M shares (N.Y. TIMES, 9/16).
