Business: In the Dough

Chairman Harold S. Geneen describes his $2.8-billion International Telephone & Telegraph Corp. as a "unified-management, multiproduct company." On that principle, in 48 major acquisitions in the last nine years, ITT has acquired a hotel chain (Sheraton), a car-rental company (Avis), a book publisher (Bobbs-Merrill), a home-builder (Levitt & Sons, Inc.), a paper and chemical company (Rayonier, Inc.) and assorted other ventures. Something Geneen still does not have is a consumer foods company. Last week he moved to remedy that deficiency by announcing that ITT, in an exchange of stock valued at $280 million, will soon acquire Continental Baking Co., the nation's...