DISCONTINUED OPERATIONS (Notes)

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2017

Discontinued Operations and Disposal Groups [Abstract]

DISCONTINUED OPERATIONS

DISCONTINUED OPERATIONS

During 2016, we entered into three separate transactions to sell our Cellulose Fibers business. As a result of these transactions, the company recognized a pretax gain on disposition of $789 million and total cash proceeds of $2.5 billion in the second half of 2016. These transactions consisted of:

• sale of our Cellulose Fibers liquid packaging board business to Nippon Paper Industries Co., Ltd, which closed on August 31, 2016;

• sale of our Cellulose Fibers printing papers joint venture to One Rock Capital Partners, LLC, which closed on November 1, 2016; and

• sale of our Cellulose Fibers pulp business to International Paper, which closed on December 1, 2016.

The results of operations for our pulp and liquid packaging board businesses, along with our interest in our printing papers joint venture, were reclassified to discontinued operations during our 2016 reporting year. These results have been summarized in "Earnings from discontinued operations, net of income taxes" on our Consolidated Statement of Operations for each period presented. We did not reclassify our Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows to reflect discontinued operations.

The following table presents net earnings from discontinued operations. As all discontinued operations were sold in 2016, no assets or liabilities remain as of March 31, 2017 or December 31, 2016.

	QUARTER ENDED
DOLLAR AMOUNTS IN MILLIONS	MARCH 2016
Total net sales	$	430
Costs of products sold	386
Gross margin	44
Selling expenses	4
General and administrative expenses	9
Research and development expenses	1
Charges for integration and restructuring, closures and asset impairments(1)	6
Other operating income, net	(9		)
Operating income	33
Equity loss from joint venture	(2		)
Interest expense, net of capitalized interest	(2		)
Earnings from discontinued operations before income taxes	29
Income taxes	(9		)
Net earnings from discontinued operations	$	20

(1) Charges for integration and restructuring, closures and asset impairments consist of costs related to our strategic evaluation of the Cellulose Fibers businesses and transaction-related costs.

Cash flows from discontinued operations for the three months ended March 31, 2016 are as follows:

	QUARTER ENDED
DOLLAR AMOUNTS IN MILLIONS	MARCH 2016
Net cash provided by (used in) operating activities	$	66
Net cash provided by (used in) investing activities	$	(22	)