AEROSPACE

Litton Industries Adopts ‘Poison Pill’: The Beverly Hills-based maker of defense electronics and Navy ships will distribute share-purchase rights Aug. 31 to its stockholders of record on that date. The rights plan is dubbed a poison pill because it is designed to ward off unwelcome takeover bids. It would allow its shareholders to buy additional Litton stock at a steep discount and thus make any unwanted takeover effort prohibitively expensive. Most big U.S. companies already have poison pills in place. Litton said its pill, which is effective once a hostile party acquires 15% of its shares, was not taken in response to a particular offer. “We have not been approached by anyone,” a spokeswoman said.