P&G; Drops $8-Billion Deal With EDS

Procter & Gamble Co. said it has decided not to sell its back-office operations to Electronic Data Systems Corp., scuttling an $8-billion deal.

P&G;, the Cincinnati maker of Tide laundry detergent, Ivory soap and other products, had planned to contract with EDS for services such as payroll processing. It put the deal on hold in September after EDS issued a surprise profit warning.

P&G; may outsource those operations to several partners, one of which might still be EDS, a P&G; spokeswoman said. Shares of EDS fell $1.93 to $14.87 and P&G; gained 15 cents to $88.01, both on the New York Stock Exchange.