Jacques Littlefield, left, Ed Littlefield, and Paul Wattis Jr., chat at a meeting December 15, 1976, held to ratify a merger of Utah International with General Electric. By 1976 the secret plans for a merger were well underway. "Morgan Stanley came back with a report in which they suggested a range [offering] a fair proposition," Littlefield related. "After they presented their report, Reg and 1 asked our questions, and our two financial vice presidents had a chance to ask their questions. "Reg and I were left alone to discuss the merger. I said to Reg, 'We could do this two ways. We could either take a long time to propose and counter-propose, or we can split the difference right now, and go home!' He laughed and said, 'Let's split the difference and go home.' So we took the middle of the range in values____" So well matched were UI and GE, in fact, that the Justice Department scrutinized the merger petitions closely. UI's uranium mines and GE's nuclear fuel systems could provide unfair competition, if combined. As a result, UI spun off the Lucky Mc mines as an independent corporation. On October 4,1976, the Justice Department announced that it would not contest the proposed merger. "My Board had been fully informed," Littlefield related. "To their great credit, there never was the slightest leak. Reg took the issue to his Board only after he and I had agreed to the merger. I wasn't sure how the GE Board would react. As it turned out, they reacted favorably." On December 15,1976, Utah International stockholders met in the Wells Fargo Bank building in San Francisco to ratify the merger. Littlefield called the meeting to order at 10 a.m., briefly saluted Eccles for his 56 years of leadership, and then identified the purpose of the meeting. To no one's surprise, the merger with General Electric was moved, seconded, and approved. Utah International continued as an independent entity within General Electric until 1984 when its assets were sold to Broken Hill Proprietary, Ltd., an Australian mining and chemical giant. With characteristic understatement Littlefield commented, "It's been a marvelous deal for all of the Utah (International] shareholders, particularly the old-line family members, of which there are quite a few."