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Welcome Wagon sheds reps
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October 12, 1998: 10:24 a.m. ET
Company's 2,200 door-to-door workers to be replaced by direct mail service
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Cendant Corp. apparently will eliminate most of its 2,200 door-to-door Welcome Wagon sales representatives.
The New York Times reported Cendant will replace them with a direct marketing operation in the hopes of reaching more people. Welcome Wagon will be combined with another Cendant company called Getting To Know You.
The company told the Times its at-home customer base has been reduced by the increase of working mothers and busy families.
Instead of the representatives, Parsippany, N.J.-based Cendant will send targeted households a bound directory containing paid advertisements, the paper reported.
The company denied the move is related to its wider financial troubles, including an accounting error that cost the company $115 million in 1997 earnings, the Times said.
Cendant bought Welcome Wagon, previously known as CUC International, for $20 million in 1995.
About 500 people will be retained in the unit to work in ad sales, the paper said.
Separately, the company said Christopher McLeod has resigned as vice chairman and a director on Cendant's board, effective immediately.
McLeod has been a vice chairman since December 1997 and a director since 1995. He is expected to remain CEO of Cendant Software until the sale of the company's consumer software business, anticipated in early 1999.
Shares of Cendant (CD) jumped 1/2 to 9-1/2 on the New York Stock Exchange Monday morning. 
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Cendant Corp.
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