Deal for Farnsworth

The plant of the Farnsworth Television & Radio Corp. in Fort Wayne, Ind. was about as lonesome as a haunted house. Production had virtually stopped, employment was down from 2,500 to a skeleton crew of a few hundred. Because of its heavy losses (TIME, Jan. 24), Farnsworth stock, which had hit a high of 11 3/4 a year ago, was slipping steadily.

Last week International Telephone & Telegraph Corp. and Farnsworth officials helped kick it farther down the ladder. I.T. & T. had agreed to buy Farnsworth through an exchange of stock, one share of I.T. & T. for twelve of Farnsworth. Since I.T. & T. was selling for $9.25 and Farnsworth for $2.87, the deal meant that Farnsworth's trade-in value was only about 77-c- a share. That touched off a selling wave.

In the next two days, Farnsworth led the big board in the number of shares traded, and dropped to 1 7/8. At week's end, Farnsworth stockholders had still to approve the deal. But those who had known about it could have--and may well have--cleaned up by selling Farnsworth short. The SEC was "looking into the matter."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.