IN BRIEF : 4 Top Kidder Executives Resign

Four top executives at General Electric Co.’s Kidder, Peabody Group Inc. have resigned in what one described as a “difference of opinion regarding the firm’s future,” according to published reports today.

The resignations occurred less than two weeks after General Electric put the head of its own investment banking unit in charge of Kidder’s profitable division.

Michael D. Madden, head of investment banking and the highest-ranking Kidder veteran, was among those who submitted his resignation Thursday, according to today’s editions of the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.

Madden and other sources told the newspapers that other Kidder executives were also considering resigning and that the firm was paralyzed over concerns about the firm’s future, the newspapers said.

Kidder Chairman Silas S. Cathcart was quoted as saying the situation was not so serious.

“We’re going to miss a few people, but life will go on,” the Journal quoted Cathcart as saying. He also added that GE and Kidder are developing a new business strategy and that “it’s a good plan and everybody agrees with it.”