THE Telecommunications giant AT&T said yesterday it has distributed more than 100 million shares of common stock in NCR to AT&T shareholders, finalising the spin off of the money losing computer unit it bought some five years ago for $7.5 billion (£4.4 billion).

As previously announced, the distribution of 101,437,174.688 shares was on the basis of 0.0625 a share of NCR for each AT&T share outstanding.

AT&T bought NCR, which is more than 110 years old and was once known as the National Cash Register Company for $7.5 billion in 1991 after a hard fought take over battle.

NCR in December reported a loss of $33 million in its third quarter for a fiscal year to date loss of $116 million.