General Dynamics Receives $125 Million to Settle Suit

General Dynamics Corp., the nation’s second-largest defense contractor, said Friday that it has received $125 million from American Telephone & Telegraph Co. and its former regional operating companies as part of a settlement of an 8-year-old antitrust lawsuit.

“We’re glad this protracted piece of legislation has finally come to an end,” said Chris Schildz, a spokesman for the St. Louis-based company.

Schildz said it’s not clear exactly what effect the settlement will have on earnings, but it’s likely that after taxes the benefit would be less than $2 a share.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Chicago in 1982, claimed that AT&T; and its companies acted to prevent competitors from making and selling phone equipment from 1972 to 1980 by using “illegal” and “anti-competitive” activities.

At the time, General Dynamics owned General Dynamics Telephone Systems Center, formerly Stromberg-Carlson Corp., and General Dynamics Communications Co.

Friday’s settlement acknowledges that AT&T; and its companies did not act in collusion to prevent competition, Schildz said.