Defining the "core" and "noncore" businesses, with separate names and management teams, may set the stage for later spinning off Citigroup's stronger operations over time.
But by segmenting Citigroup into Citicorp and Citi Holdings, run by separate managers, Mr. Pandit may be setting the stage for a spinoff of Citigroup's stronger operations or an eventual merger.
By breaking the company into four pieces, each represented by its own stock, AT&T would seek to show investors more clearly the growth of its stronger operations, like the wireless business, while quarantining the financial impact of its weaker units, like its consumer long-distance operation.
Unilever intends to fold its food-service business into that of Bestfoods, which has a stronger operation, Mr. Burgmans said last month.
On the military side, we should carry out strong operations against the big leaders, to weaken all those powerful smugglers and reduce the risk for the ordinary farmers".
"He has strong operations experience, so he's a good fit for what they need," Ben Abramovitz, an analyst for Icap Equity Research, said.
"Because of his strong operations background, it's easy for franchisees to feel that he understands the operations side better than anyone at McDonald's has for many, many years".
"For us, it's a strategic merger, an opportunity to pull together three very strong operations into one," said Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and the Waco-born daughter of the late Gov. Ann Richards.
"We look forward to welcoming Priory's outstanding team to Acadia and to building on a sector leadership position that reflects Priory's clinical expertise, strong operations and high-quality facilities".
(Randy Michaels, Jacor's former C.E.O., told me that the companies were hardly comparable, since Jacor had benefitted from the deregulation of the broadcast industry. Moreover, he said, Jacor had "strong operations with a broken balance sheet. This is the opposite: Tribune's balance sheet isn't broken. Sam's going to break it to get the deal done").
And so the company's executives and investment bankers have been hard at work considering various restructuring options meant to underline the value of the relatively strong operations, like the cable unit, while quarantining the performance of the relative laggards, like consumer long-distance.
