Divestment

William J. Pulte, founder and chairman of Pulte Homes Inc., said Monday that he would sell as many as 3.8 million shares under an accord that allows him to buy back the stock by the end of the year. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Pulte said he was selling as much as 9% of his stock in the Bloomfield, Mich., company to raise cash for transactions involving friends and family members.

Adidas' TaylorMade golf unit sold its trademark for Maxfli balls to Dick's Sporting Goods Inc. of Pittsburgh. Financial details of the transaction weren't disclosed. TaylorMade, based in Carlsbad, Calif., will focus on its Tour Preferred and Burner golf-ball brands, Chief Executive Mark King said. TaylorMade will retain the trademark on its Noodle-brand balls and all of its golf-ball patents.

The 103-year-old Hollywood trade paper Variety went on the auction block Thursday when Anglo-Dutch company Reed Elsevier put its publishing unit up for sale. The company said the planned sale was strategic -- part of a move away from advertising-dependent to subscription-based publications and information services -- and no reflection on the performance of its Reed Business Information unit.

The chief executive of General Electric Co. is telling investors that the industrial and financial conglomerate will not sell NBC Universal, despite recurring speculation that GE would shed its media and entertainment division. Jeffrey Immelt, in a message to investors in GE's annual report to be released today, called NBC Universal a "great example of a business that becomes more valuable as its market evolves." "Should we sell NBC-U? The answer is no! I just don't see it happening, not before the Olympics, not after the Olympics," Immelt said.

H&R Block Inc. said Monday that it had signed an agreement to sell its troubled mortgage servicing business for $1.1 billion to billionaire investor Wilbur Ross. Option One Mortgage Corp., which has been rocked by the nationwide mortgage crisis, services about $53 billion of sub-prime mortgages, ranking it the fourth-largest in the nation.

Saying it wants to concentrate on private banking for wealthy clients, Bank of New York Mellon Corp. has agreed to sell its Mellon 1st Business Bank of Los Angeles, a small commercial lender, to U.S. Bank. U.S. Bank, part of U.S. Bancorp of Minneapolis, has been expanding in the western United States. In buying Mellon 1st Business Bank, U.S. Bank would acquire $1.1 billion in loans and assume $2.7 billion in deposits. The transaction is expected to close by the end of June, subject to regulatory approvals, the banks said in announcing the deal.

Tenet Healthcare Corp. has agreed to sell to the University of Southern California both USC University Hospital and USC Norris Cancer Hospital, it was announced Monday. Financial terms were not disclosed. The facilities near downtown Los Angeles are staffed by USC medical personnel and include a teaching facility. The university owns the land and Dallas-based Tenet manages the buildings and equipment.

Jefferies Group Inc., an investment bank that serves mid-size companies, said Monday that it would sell a 13.7% stake to Leucadia National Corp., raising $434 million of equity capital after its second straight quarterly loss. Leucadia will buy 26.6 million shares, inject $100 million of cash and take two newly created seats on Jefferies' board, which now has seven members. Jefferies joins banks and securities firms including Citigroup Inc., Wachovia Corp. and Washington Mutual Inc. that have sought more than $160 billion to replenish capital in recent months, amid losses stemming from the slump in housing and a global credit crisis.

Bidding for Tribune Co.'s Long Island newspaper, Newsday, got livelier Friday as New York Daily News owner Mortimer Zuckerman matched a $580-million bid by media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, according to a person familiar with the situation. The bids are structured differently, but both would provide Tribune with well over $500 million in immediate cash without triggering a large capital-gains tax, the person said. The Chicago media conglomerate needs the cash to knock down debt incurred in its $8.2-billion buyout in December.

Pfizer Inc. sold Esperion Therapeutics Inc., a company it bought for $1.3 billion more than four years ago, to a group of venture capital firms that are investing $22.8 million in the company. Aisling Capital, Alta Partners and Domain Associates led the financing, which Pfizer will share in return for a stake in the company. The terms of the deal weren't disclosed.