Business Notes DIVESTITURES

In the first major sale of assets since Time Inc. acquired Warner Communications last July, the merged company agreed last week to shed a subsidiary that had turned out to be a disappointing performer. Time Warner said it will sell its Illinois-based textbook publishing unit, Scott, Foresman, for $455 million to Harper & Row Publishers, which is owned by media baron Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. When it bought Scott, Foresman in 1986, Time paid $520 million and assumed $50 million in debt. Time Warner's losses on the Scott, Foresman investment will total $175 million, which will be written off in the fourth quarter.

Time Warner had decided that the textbook division failed to fit well with its other publishing and entertainment businesses. At the same time, the sale will help reduce the $12 billion in debt that the company will assume when its merger is completed, sometime around year's end.