Lockheed confident on merger
Lockheed Corp. said yesterday that it does not expect federal regulators to order it to sell any of its businesses and said it is confident its merger with Martin Marietta Corp. will go through.
Lockheed was responding to a Wall Street Journal report that its defense industry rivals planned antitrust challenges to parts of its merger with Martin Marietta.
A Lockheed spokesman would not comment on the possibility that regulators could require internal barriers within the merged company.
Gibson files derivatives suit
Gibson Greetings Inc. filed a $73 million lawsuit yesterday accusing a New York bank and its affiliate of misleading Cincinnati-based Gibson about the risks involved in financial contracts sold to the company.
Gibson sued Bankers Trust Co. and its BT Securities Corp. subsidiary over so-called derivative contracts. The company lost at least $23 million when the contracts went sour.
Bankers Trust denied it misled Gibson.
NLRB files Sprint charge
Federal labor officials accused Sprint Corp. yesterday of illegally shutting down a Spanish-language telemarketing company to thwart union organizing by its 235 employees.
Sprint denied the accusation and said it closed the business eight days before a scheduled union election because the San Francisco subsidiary was losing money.
The National Labor Relations Board said it found more than 50 instances of illegal anti-union conduct by management of La Conexion Familiar, the Sprint-owned firm that closed July 14.
Resignation at ITT
ITT Corp. said yesterday that Dale Comey was resigning at the end of the year as executive vice president heading ITT's insurance, finance and business services business.
His retirement may signal that a breakup of the manufacturing, hotel and financial services conglomerate into separate companies may not be coming soon, analysts said.
Dunlop offer rejected
About 1,300 striking rubber workers in Huntsville, Ala., have rejected a second contract offer by Dunlop Tire Corp., a union spokesman said.
Members of United Rubber Workers Local 915 voted the proposed deal down by a 2-1 margin over the weekend, extending a bitter labor dispute that had erupted into violence and clouds of police tear gas only a few days earlier.