P&G Could Offer Unilever $10 Million

Procter & Gamble Co. reportedly could wind up paying more than $10 million to rival Unilever as a settlement, after P&G confessed that people it had hired spied on Unilever to obtain information about hair care products, according to The Associated Press.

In the ongoing settlement talks, P&G has proposed an independent audit aimed at assuring that P&G would not make use of information improperly obtained from Unilever, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported Wednesday. Settlement terms also could include a P&G payment of more than $10 million to Unilever and reassignment of several executives in P&G’s hair care business, the Enquirer reported.

P&G spokeswoman Linda Ulrey declined on Wednesday to comment about anything that the two corporate rivals are discussing in their settlement talks. An arbitrary deadline for concluding the talks passed last Friday. Ms. Ulrey wouldn’t say if there is a new deadline. “Our goal has always been to get it done as quickly as possible,” she said.

Stephen Milton, spokesman for the Anglo-Dutch conglomerate Unilever, noted that it has been four months since P&G discovered the violation of its own policies and reported them to Unilever. “That tells its own story about how long this has gone on,” Mr. Milton said.

Fortune magazine reported Thursday that P&G employees hired a company whose operatives went through trash bins and misrepresented themselves as market analysts to gain information about Unilever’s hair care business. P&G acknowledged that employees obtained information in a way that violated company policies, but said the company did nothing illegal. Fortune said the spying began last fall and continued until the spring when senior P&G executives, including chairman John Pepper, found out about it and informed Unilever.

P&G said it fired three employees, “quarantined” the information that had been obtained and gave it to Unilever.