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After some last-minute tweaking, Northrop Grumman Corp.'s $3.8 billion bid to buy Litton Industries Inc. should be completed this quarter, according to defense industry specialists.
Los Angles-based Northrop announced on February 1 that it would extend the expiration date of its offer from February 2 to March 1. The sticking point that has slowed the merger was concern by Litton's 28% shareholder, Unitrin Inc., that the pact be done on a tax-free basis.
"Unitrin wasn't happy with the original offer because they were facing a heavy tax hit, but the offer has been modified to make it tax-free, and it looks like a sure thing now," said Thomas Meagher, a defense industry stock analyst at the Richmond, Va., brokerage firm of BB&T...