Honeywell Inc has bowed to outside pressure and stepped back from the problematic mainframe business, but now has to deliver on the promise that without the mainframe millstone, the rest of the business will be invigorated: chairman Edson Spencer says that Honeywell is committed to exceeding earnings of $5 a share in 1987 and $6 a share in 1988, barring any major economic downturn – and intends to achieve this by agreeing only modest pay increases, spending less as a percentage of sales on research and development, and insisting that it pays its suppliers less for parts; in 1986 it reported a $398.1m loss after $411m in charges from discontinued operations on $5,380m sales.
