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Illinois Tool Works Sells Packaging Unit For $3.2B

Illinois Tool Works is selling its packaging division to The Carlyle Group for $3.2 billion and plans to use the money to buy back shares. Carlyle says the packaging division has 88 manufacturing sites on six continents. Carlyle said in the announcement on Thursday that it will run the packaging group as a stand-alone company.

GLENVIEW, Ill. (AP) -- Illinois Tool Works is selling its packaging division to The Carlyle Group for $3.2 billion and plans to use the money to buy back shares.

Carlyle says the packaging division has 88 manufacturing sites on six continents. Carlyle said in the announcement on Thursday that it will run the packaging group as a stand-alone company.

ITW says it will use the money from the sale to buy back 50 million of its shares, which will offset the profit impact of losing the division.

Illinois Tool Works Inc., which is based in Glenview, Ill., had announced a year ago that it was reviewing options for the business, which had 2012 revenue of $2.4 billion, compared to $14.79 billion for the whole company. ITW didn't break out the division's 2013 revenue in its earnings report last week.

ITW's shares rose 83 cents to $78.95 in after-hours trading. They had risen 53 cents to close at $78.12 in regular trading before the announcement of the deal.

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