Divestiture

Media mogul Sumner Redstone has proposed selling part of his family holding company's movie theater circuit to pare down its debt, according to people close to the situation. A restructuring plan submitted to bankers this week by Redstone's private holding company, National Amusements Inc., also proposed shedding stakes in the video game company Midway Games Inc. and slot machine maker WMS Industries Inc.

Gap Inc. has hired investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc., sources familiar with the matter said Monday, stoking investor hopes the struggling apparel retailer could be up for sale and sending its shares up as much as 11%. The two sources said Gap, with a market capitalization of more than $15 billion, hired Goldman last month, but it was unclear exactly what the bank was hired to do.

NCR Corp. said Monday that it would spin off its data warehousing unit, resulting in two publicly traded companies: one that makes computers that store and analyze massive amounts of data and one that makes ATMs and checkout scanners for retailers. NCR shares climbed 3.3%. The spinoff of Teradata, which will take six to nine months, will allow each company to better concentrate on its customer base, business strategy and operational needs, NCR said.

The ex-wife of Peter Morton, founder of the Hard Rock restaurant and casino empire, is alleging that he dealt her a bad hand by understating the value of her ownership in the business and fraudulently persuading her to sell him $12.8 million worth of stock for $451,000. In a lawsuit filed last week in Los Angeles County Superior Court, Tarlton Morton also alleged that her ex-husband transferred to himself an additional $29 million in company stock that had been in her name.

THIS is a tale of two de-accessions, the term used for the disposal of works of art by a public institution, usually through sale. The practice is legitimate but thorny -- legitimate because any institution's leaders, who benefit from public tax subsidy, must be free to make decisions they believe to be in the public interest; and thorny because the public is rarely unanimous in deciding what its interests are. De-accessioning often raises hackles.

In less than 17 years of institutional life, as the Hammer Museum has grown from orphanhood into contemporary art stardom, director Ann Philbin has won a reputation as a remarkably successful turnaround artist. Since her arrival in 1999, the museum has grown into a cutting-edge art space from a vanity institution beset with troubles, beginning with the death of founder Armand Hammer 15 days after its November 1990 opening.

A secret six-year imbroglio that threatened to dismantle the Hammer Museum -- established by oil baron Armand Hammer and endowed with art by his foundation -- has ended with the museum and the Armand Hammer Foundation agreeing to part company and divide a $305-million collection amassed by Hammer.

Home Depot Inc., the world's largest home improvement store chain, distanced itself further from the strategies advanced by former Chief Executive Bob Nardelli as it said Monday that it would consider shedding its division serving contractors, home builders and other business customers.

Tribune Co. said Monday that it was selling the Spanish-language daily newspaper Hoy New York to ImpreMedia for an undisclosed sum, saying the publication was continuing to lose money. The sale, expected to close during its first quarter, does not include the Hoy newspapers in Los Angeles and Chicago.

The shakeout in the sub-prime lending industry continued Monday, with more people losing their jobs and a prominent lender losing its name on a baseball stadium. Fremont General Corp. of Santa Monica said it had told "significant numbers" of its 2,400 home-loan employees to expect pink slips in two months. Company officials declined to say how many employees would be dismissed. Fremont is the latest lender to announce layoffs in the sub-prime market, which targets people with dented credit.