Lockheed Rebuffs Simmons: Lockheed Corp. said its...

Lockheed Rebuffs Simmons: Lockheed Corp. said its board rejected a proposal from Texas investor Harold C. Simmons to eliminate Lockheed’s “poison pill” anti-takeover defense provision. The defense gives Lockheed the right to sell stock to other shareholders at a discount if a hostile buyer acquires 20% or more of the company’s stock, a provision that would dilute the stake of an unfriendly suitor. NL Industries, a Houston-based chemical company controlled by Simmons, owns 19.8% and last month said it was willing to buy another 10 million shares from a Lockheed employee stock ownership plan if the aerospace firm removed its poison pill. Lockheed said Simmons, who made an unsuccessful bid for control of Lockheed Corp. last spring, will not be exempted from the poison pill provision.