Sara Lee

Wall Street is betting that Sara Lee will break in two rather than accept an outright sale offer. Shares of the Downers Grove, Ill.-based packaged-food giant fell 88 cents, or 4.8%, to $17.64 on Thursday. The stock has slipped 7% since Monday. After the market closed Thursday, Sara Lee announced that it would hold a webcast Friday morning to provide an update on "strategic initiatives" and its business outlook for the rest of its fiscal year. This will mark the company's first public statements about its future since speculation regarding a breakup or sale peaked last month.

It has made Coach handbags, Isotoner gloves, Kiwi shoe polish and Playtex bras. But by Thursday, Sara Lee Corp. will have slimmed down to meat and cheesecake. What was a $20-billion, multinational holding company with more than 150,000 employees in 2000 will become a food-focused company renamed Hillshire Brands, with about 8,500 employees, a portfolio of meat products and frozen desserts and nearly $4 billion in sales. The tighter focus is the result of a 12-year process in which Sara Lee has spun off and sold businesses, partly because of investment trends that have dimmed the appeal of diversified conglomerates.

Investors are betting that Sara Lee Corp. will be broken up or sold in the coming months. With its stock price up nearly 50% over the last year, closing at $17.41 on Tuesday, the worst thing that could happen for shareholders, at least in the short term, is for it to do nothing, analysts say. "It's trading at a very high multiple, which implies it's a potential takeout," Erin Swanson, an analyst with Chicago-based Morningstar Inc., said Monday....

Sara Lee Corp. announced Friday that it would divide into two publicly traded companies ? one focusing on its North American food businesses and the other on European coffee, tea and bread. In a call with investors, Marcel Smits, the company's newly appointed chief executive, acknowledged that Sara Lee had received "unsolicited interest" from potential buyers. Instead of selling, the company's board determined that splitting Sara Lee was in shareholders' best interests. Sara Lee will issue a $3 special dividend to shareholders as part of the split.

Sara Lee Corp. reported record first-quarter earnings today, a 24.1% increase over the year-ago period. Earnings for the three months ending Sept. 30, the company's first fiscal quarter, rose to $93.8 million from $75.6 million for the same period last year, Sara Lee said in a statement. Earnings per share increased 15.4% to 75 cents, compared with 65 cents a year ago. The lower percentage increase in earnings per share relative to the 24.

Sara Lee Corp. said it settled discrimination lawsuits filed by a group of black workers at one of its former Philadelphia food processing plants for $3.5 million. Terms of the settlement weren't disclosed. Shares of Sara Lee fell 3 cents to $20.87 on the NYSE.

Sara Lee Corp. filed to spin off leather manufacturer Coach Inc. in a stock sale worth $140 million. Coach, which makes handbags, gloves, outerwear and scarves, will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol COH, according to Sara Lee's filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The spinoff is part of Chicago-based Sara Lee's plan to whittle down a widespread collection of businesses obtained in the last quarter-century. Sara Lee shares fell 50 cents to $17.75 on the NYSE.

Sara Lee Corp. has acquired a majority interest in Compack Trading & Packing Co., the third-largest food company in Hungary. Sara Lee said the Hungarian government approved its request for a 51% stake in Compack. Sara Lee had acquired a minority stake in Compack, Hungary's largest coffee roaster, in December of last year. Compack, with annual sales of about $140 million, also produces teas, spices, rice and household products.

Sara Lee Corp. said fiscal first-quarter profit rose more than expected, to at least 35 cents a share, as the maker of Sara Lee cakes and Hanes underwear boosted sales and cut costs. Profit this year will rise to $1.54 to $1.60 a share from $1.36 last year, Sara Lee said. The company had forecast profit of $1.44 to $1.50. Shares of Chicago-based Sara Lee rose as much as $1.23 to $21.13 in after-hours trading, after gaining 47 cents to close at $19.90 on the NYSE.

Sara Lee Corp.'s president and chief executive, C. Steven McMillan, was elected to the additional post of chairman effective Oct. 5. McMillan, 55, succeeds the retiring John Bryan, whom he also had replaced last year as chief executive. Bryan, 64, was CEO for 25 years. The Chicago company announced four other high-level promotions. Barry Beracha, 59, CEO of the bakery group, was named an executive vice president of the corporation, and John Iselin Jr.

Wall Street is betting that Sara Lee will break in two rather than accept an outright sale offer. Shares of the Downers Grove, Ill.-based packaged-food giant fell 88 cents, or 4.8%, to $17.64 on Thursday. The stock has slipped 7% since Monday. After the market closed Thursday, Sara Lee announced that it would hold a webcast Friday morning to provide an update on "strategic initiatives" and its business outlook for the rest of its fiscal year. This will mark the company's first public statements about its future since speculation regarding a breakup or sale peaked last month.

Investors are betting that Sara Lee Corp. will be broken up or sold in the coming months. With its stock price up nearly 50% over the last year, closing at $17.41 on Tuesday, the worst thing that could happen for shareholders, at least in the short term, is for it to do nothing, analysts say. "It's trading at a very high multiple, which implies it's a potential takeout," Erin Swanson, an analyst with Chicago-based Morningstar Inc., said Monday....

Sara Lee Corp. chief Brenda Barnes broke the silence about her medical condition Monday morning, issuing a statement that she is recovering from a stroke. "I know there has been a lot of speculation on my condition, so I want to take the opportunity to provide some details," the chairwoman and chief executive, 56, said in a statement. "I suffered a stroke a few weeks ago, and I am now in the process of recuperating." Jon Harris, a Sara Lee spokesman, said Barnes and the company would provide no details on her condition or the severity of the stroke.

A day after Sara Lee Corp. completed the spinoff of its underwear unit, shares in Hanesbrands Inc. rose sharply Wednesday on their first day of trading. Shares of the new Winston-Salem, N.C.-based company, trading under the ticker symbol HBI, rose $1.31, or 6.6%, to $21.11 on the New York Stock Exchange. Sara Lee shares were repriced to reflect the spun-off assets and closed at $14.78, up 58 cents. Hanesbrands' brands include Hanes, Champion, Playtex and Wonderbra.

Sara Lee Corp. is shedding bras and underwear but keeping its cakes and deli meats. The Chicago-based consumer products giant said Thursday that it planned to sell or spin off divisions with about $8.2 billion in revenue, more than half of that from apparel brands including Playtex and Hanes underwear. It also named a new chief executive in a sweeping reorganization of its business.

Sara Lee Branded Apparel, the makers of Wonderbra, Hanes and Playtex products, will shut five plants and lay off 3,825 workers worldwide by year's end, the company announced. The moves come as the company consolidates its production of intimates, sportswear and underwear, Sara Lee Branded Apparel said. The changes are being made in anticipation of apparel trade restrictions set to expire at the end of the year.

Sara Lee Corp. said it will buy No. 2 U.S. bakery Earthgrains Co. for about $1.7 billion in cash, extending Sara Lee's baking operations into fresh breads and refrigerated doughs. In the largest acquisition in its history, Sara Lee said it will pay $40.25 in cash for each share of St. Louis-based Earthgrains, or more than a 50% premium over its closing price Friday, and will assume $1.1 billion in debt. Earthgrains shares soared $13.82 to $39.82, and Sara Lee shares rose 55 cents to $19.

Brenda Barnes, who walked away from a job as president and chief executive of PepsiCola North America to spend more time with her children, will become the president and chief operating officer at Sara Lee Corp., the company announced Sunday. Barnes, 50, spent 22 years at PepsiCo, becoming president and CEO at PepsiCola North America in 1996. She made headlines when she quit in 1998 to be with her family.

Brenda Barnes, who walked away from a job as president and chief executive of PepsiCola North America to spend more time with her children, will become the president and chief operating officer at Sara Lee Corp., the company announced Sunday. Barnes, 50, spent 22 years at PepsiCo, becoming president and CEO at PepsiCola North America in 1996. She made headlines when she quit in 1998 to be with her family.