ENTERTAINMENT: Shedding an Old Skin

Shedding an Old Skin

What do Consolidated Cigar and the Richmond Screw Anchor Co. have in common? Both were once owned by the quintessential conglomerate of the 1960s: Gulf & Western. The diverse mix of businesses proved so unmanageable by the early 1980s that G&W; Chairman Martin Davis launched a campaign to spin off more than 100 subsidiaries. Last week the company once known as Engulf & Devour said it will sell one of its few remaining divisions, Associates First Capital Corp., a financial services company. Davis hopes to use the estimated $3 billion in proceeds to assemble a world-class media and entertainment giant. The...

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