Corporate Spin-offs: Strategy for the 1980s

Ronald J. Kudla and Thomas H. McInish explore the implications and advantages of the spin-off, a type of business divestiture which results in a new, separate, publicly held operating company. Using information from in-depth interviews with executives experienced in such divestitures, the authors explain the anticipated benefits to the corporation, as well as to the stockholders of the parent firm. They also explore involuntary spin-offs such as in the recent case of American Telephone and Telegraph--the largest spin-off in history. In successive chapters the authors describe and illustrate the motives for spin-offs, the mechanical aspects, accounting and tax aspects, and the effects of spin-offs on shareholder wealth. Finally, they present four specific case studies of spin-offs.