P&G Says Hopes to Seal a Deal With EDS Soon

It was P&G's first public acknowledgement that EDS had resumed negotiations with the company for the possible multibillion-dollar contract after dropping out of the talks in July. P&G hopes to work out the final details in the next few days with EDS, P&G spokeswoman Linda Ulrey said.

The consumer products giant still believes that having another company handle the services it now performs in-house is best for the company, Ulrey said.

The deal, which P&G sees as a way to cut costs, has made workers nervous because it would move 5,700 employees to another company.

A.G. Lafley, P&G's chairman and CEO, led a Webcast Thursday morning to inform company employees of the status of the negotiations.

The Wall Street Journal had reported that EDS emerged as the likely partner after rival Affiliated Computer Services said earlier in the week that it was pulling out of exclusive negotiations with P&G.

Procter and Gamble has been looking for someone to run its information technology, employee services and some accounting and purchasing functions as part of a plan to cut costs and focus on products and marketing.

P&G has never named a price for the deal, but analysts have estimated its value at $8 billion to $10 billion over 10 years, including payments and assets P&G would sell, such as data centers.

EDS is the world's second-largest computer-services company after IBM.

In morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange, P&G shares were off 39 cents, at $91.71, while EDS, which reported Wednesday that its earnings will fall short of expectations, was down 43.8 percent, or $15.95 a share, at $20.51.

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