sale of an asset to achieve a desired objective. A bank may sell branch offices, or even an entire operating division, to cut operating expenses or carry out its business plan for long-term growth. In a merger with another bank, it may be required to sell branches to gain the approval of state or federal banking supervisors. Assets sold without recourse are taken off the selling bank's balance sheet and transferred to the purchaser. In accounting terms, the sale is treated as a nonrecurring gain (or loss).
- loss or voluntary surrender of a right, title, or interest.
- remedy by which the court orders the offending party to rid itself of assets before the party would normally have done so. This remedy is sometimes used in the enforcement of the antitrust laws, whereby a corporation must shed a part of its business to comply with the law.
disposition of an asset or investment by outright sale, employee purchase, liquidation, and so on.
Also, one corporation's orderly distribution of large blocks of another corporation's stock, which were held as an investment. Du Pont was ordered by the courts to divest itself of General Motors stock, for example.
