Divestment

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. failed Wednesday to meet its self-imposed year-end deadline to announce a sale of IndyMac Federal Bank. Talks between the FDIC and a New York-based investment group adjourned late Wednesday without a deal and are set to resume next week, said a person close to the discussions who wasn't authorized to speak publicly about them. IndyMac spokesman Evan Wagner, who had spent the last few months declaring that a deal would be reached by year-end, struck an exasperated tone.

Hearst Corp. put the Seattle Post-Intelligencer up for sale on Friday and said that if it can't find a buyer in the next 60 days the paper would likely close or continue to exist only online. Seattle, along with Denver, is on the verge of losing its second daily newspaper as the industry tries to pull out of a tailspin brought on by falling circulation and advertising revenue. Hearst has owned the P-I since 1921, and the paper has had operating losses since 2000, including $14 million last year.

William Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management sold its entire stake in Barnes & Noble Inc. after the world's largest bookseller lost more than half its market value. Pershing Square said in a U.S. securities filing it held no shares in New York-based Barnes & Noble as of Dec. 22. The hedge-fund company was the retailer's third-biggest investor with an 11.8% stake as of Sept. 30. Ron Burkle's Yucaipa Cos. private-equity firm reported an 8.3% stake in Barnes & Noble Jan. 2 and said he might seek talks with the retailer.

General Motors Corp., working to sell assets to help keep $13.4 billion in U.S. loans, has drawn interest in its Hummer brand from a Chinese company and a private-equity firm, people familiar with the talks said. The pace of negotiations has intensified in the last few weeks, said the people, who wouldn't name the suitors and asked not to be identified because the discussions are private. More meetings are scheduled this week, one person said.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. will win investor support for selling a portion of its 4.9% stake in the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China to raise more than $1 billion, two shareholders said. The New York company is mulling over a possible sale of the shares, valued at about $7.5 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported. Goldman Sachs declined to comment.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Industrial & Commercial Bank of China said they had created a lock-up agreement that prevents Goldman from selling much of its stake in the Chinese bank until next year. Goldman, which owns 4.9% of ICBC's outstanding shares, has agreed to hold on to 80% of that stake until at least April 28, 2010. Goldman will be able to sell the remaining stake any time after April 28 of this year. There had been speculation that Goldman would sell off a portion of its investment in ICBC to raise additional cash amid the ongoing credit crisis and to potentially repay a government investment.

A family-owned business that started with a local newspaper more than 100 years ago and became best known as owner of the Weather Channel is looking into selling its businesses, including nine daily newspapers. Frank Batten Jr., Landmark Communications Inc.'s chairman and chief executive, announced Thursday that the privately held company had retained investment banks JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Lehman Bros. to help it look into possible sale scenarios.

Ambac Financial Group Inc., the first bond insurer to lose a AAA credit rating because of sub-prime mortgages, said Tuesday that it was considering "strategic alternatives" after posting its biggest loss. Shares jumped 29% on optimism that it might be sold. The second-largest bond insurer posted a fourth-quarter loss of $3.3 billion, or $31.85 a share, after writing down by $5.2 billion the value of credit derivatives tied to loans made to homeowners with poor credit, the company said.

Sun-Times Media Group Inc., parent of the Chicago Sun-Times, put the city's second-largest daily and "any or all" of the company's assets up for sale amid a crippling decline in advertising and revenue at its newspapers. The company said its board of directors also was looking at other ways to increase shareholder value, including joint ventures or partnerships.