Pillsbury to Spin Off Burger King

Pillsbury Co., which is fending off a hostile $5.23-billion takeover bid from a large British conglomerate, announced today that it will spin off its troubled Burger King subsidiary.

Under a plan approved by Pillsbury’s board of directors, the fast-food chain would be spun off to its shareholders as a separate public company, distributing one share of Burger King common stock for each outstanding share of Pillsbury common stock, payable on Jan. 27 or earlier for shareholders of record Dec. 2. Last month Pillsbury’s board rejected Grand Metropolitan PLC’s takeover bid as inadequate, and today the food and restaurant giant repeated its plea that shareholders not tender their stock to the British company.