Procter & Gamble Co. said it would...

Procter & Gamble Co. said it would put more of its shares in the hands of its employees in a move that was widely viewed on Wall Street as a defense against a possible takeover attempt. The company’s leveraged employee stock ownership plan, or ESOP, will widen the proportion of the company owned by the employees to about 20% from 14%, according to Prudential-Bache Securities analyst Lynne Hyman. The announcement, on the heels of a Delaware court’s approval of a Polaroid Corp. ESOP, cooled speculative interest in Procter & Gamble’s stock.