(FORTUNE Magazine) – Even though retired chairman William Spoor's return to Pillsbury to ''help'' his successor, John Stafford, was billed as temporary, it looked as if Spoor could end up replacing his heir (FORTUNE, November 23). In late February, Stafford, 51, handed the top job back to Spoor, 65. During Stafford's three years as chief executive he presided over the decline of Pillsbury's moneymaking restaurant operations, including Burger King. Worse, the softness in the company's stock has made the doughboy a takeover target. Spoor, who ran Pillsbury from 1973 to 1985 and transformed it from a dusty flour miller into a huge food conglomerate, plans to hold on to Burger King but may sell some smaller restaurant chains. He'll also have to find a successor who can manage Pillsbury for the long haul. After botching the production of the guidance system for the MX missile, Northrop seemed headed for another crisis: Present and former employees claimed the company so mismanaged its hush-hush Stealth bomber project that cost overruns were soaring toward $1 billion, while the plane itself was having trouble getting off the ground (FORTUNE, March 14). A civil suit subsequently charged Northrop with overbilling and using Pentagon funds earmarked for the Stealth to pay part of the development costs of a new advanced tactical fighter. The Pentagon's inspector general is investigating the charges, and the House Armed Services Committee is looking into related matters. Northrop has no comment. Security analysts figure Stealth accounted for almost half Northrop's revenues last year.