Shareholders' Equity

12 Months Ended

Oct. 26, 2012

Shareholders' Equity

11. Shareholders’ Equity

We have 150,000,000 shares of authorized common stock, par value $1.00 per share, 50,000,000 of which were distributed in connection with our July 12, 2001 emergence from bankruptcy. The last distribution of 1,233,423 shares (2,775,111 shares after January 21, 2005 and December 12, 2005 stock splits) was distributed starting on January 28, 2005, in accordance with the Plan of Reorganization.

Under our prior share repurchase program, management was authorized to repurchase up to $2.0 billion in shares of common stock in the open market or through privately negotiated transactions through December 31, 2011. Cumulatively, we had repurchased $1.1 billion of common stock, which represents 23,873,159 shares under this share repurchase program. In September 2008, we repurchased 1,890,000 shares of common stock for $93.6 million. These shares were held in a brokerage account at Lehman Brothers Inc. (“LBI”), which subsequently filed for liquidation on September 19, 2008. The liquidation of LBI is being administered by a court-appointed trustee (“SIPA Trustee”), pursuant to the Securities Investors Protection Act of 1970 and Chapter 7 of the United States Bankruptcy Code. Our claim with respect to the shares in the LBI brokerage account, together with dividends paid on such shares, was allowed by the SIPA Trustee on March 25, 2009. We anticipate that these shares, along with the cash from dividends paid since September 19, 2008 totaling $5.3 million, will be returned to us as part of these proceedings. However, the SIPA Trustee’s process of resolving claims and recovering assets in respect of the LBI bankruptcy estate is ongoing, and a plan of distribution has not yet been filed. The repurchased shares have been reflected as treasury shares and the cash dividends have been reflected as a receivable in other current assets in the accompanying Consolidated Balance Sheet.