Control Data Decides Not to Sell Commercial Credit

Control Data Corp. reported Wednesday that it has ended discussions with prospective buyers of Commercial Credit Co. and said that it no longer plans to sell the wholly owned financial-services subsidiary.

Control Data had announced late last year that it would consider selling Commercial Credit.

“The sale of Commercial Credit has been pursued for a number of months. After carefully evaluating the risks of not being able to conclude a sale on acceptable terms in a timely manner, we have concluded that the benefits of retaining Commercial Credit outweigh the advantages of continuing the sale process,” said Robert M. Price, president and chief operating officer of Control Data.

“We are confident that Commercial Credit will continue to make a valuable contribution, especially as plans to restructure and improve the company’s operations are implemented,” Price said.

Commercial Credit’s actions during the past year to streamline operations and improve performance resulted in substantial improvement in the profitability of its operations, Price said.

He added that possibilities for further major restructuring of Commercial Credit had been identified as the sale process went forward and that the company would now implement those changes to accelerate its improvement in profitability and return on assets.

Commercial Credit, headquartered in Baltimore, operates a network of 650 consumer and commercial lending offices in about 40 states, along with subsidiaries that supply insurance, real estate and vehicle leasing services.

It had revenue of $1.3 billion last year.

Control Data is a Minneapolis-based computer and financial-services company with worldwide revenue of $5 billion in 1984.