P&G plans to pursue Duracell's spin-off into stand-alone firm

New York

FOR decades, Procter & Gamble (P&G), which built an empire out of soap and diapers, has held court under America's sinks. The maker of Tide and other cleaning and personal-care products has spent years acquiring hundreds of brands it hoped could also become part of consumers' daily routines. Now the company has begun another ambitious project: getting rid of about half of those brands.

In its quarterly earnings announcement, P&G announced that it would pu…