Kidder Not for Sale, GE Insists

Employees of Kidder, Peabody & Co. were assured Thursday that the firm is not for sale.

In a memo issued to employees of the brokerage firm, which was acquired by General Electric in 1986, GE Chairman John F. Welch Jr. and other GE and Kidder executives denied the rumors of an impending sale that have been circulating this week on Wall Street.

“Many of you have doubtless heard or read that Kidder Peabody is on the block. This is not true,” the memo began. “There are no plans to sell Kidder, in whole or in part. There are no negotiations under way. No investment bank has been retained.”

The executives did acknowledge that GE and Kidder “have received calls” expressing interest in acquiring Kidder. But “on each occasion, the answer has been flatly no.”

Among the rumored suitors have been the investment firms of Merrill Lynch & Co. and Smith Barney, Harris Upham & Co.

In the aftermath of last year’s stock market crash and insider trading scandal, some executives at competing Wall Street firms have begun speculating that GE had taken on more problems than it bargained for and would decide early this year whether to keep Kidder.

The memo to employees acknowledges that “these are tough times on Wall Street” but maintains that “we are going to pull through . . . and we are going to keep you informed of all our progress every step of the way.”