Some companies try to get out of trouble by diversifying into new fields, but American Motors Corp. has traveled the opposite route. Last year the debt-ridden automaker sold off its profitable credit subsidiary, Redisco Inc., to rival Chrysler Corp. That left the appliance-making Kelvinator division as A.M.C.'s only major operation outside of the automobile business—and A.M.C. ever since has been seeking a buyer for Kelvinator.
Last week it appeared to have found a taker in Cleveland-based White Consolidated Industries Inc. White's acquisition of A.M.C.'s Kelvinator assets, the two companies announced, was "in the final stages of negotiation." A broadly based...