Hilton Hotels Corp. raised its bid for ITT Corp. Tuesday, intensifying a bidding war with Starwood Lodging for the hotel and casino company.

Hilton's new offer of $80 a share in cash and stock for ITT is lower than the $82 a share offer that ITT management agreed last month to accept from Starwood, one of the biggest real estate investment trusts.But Hilton argued its offer is better because it includes more cash than Starwood is offering and is less vulnerable than Starwood's bid to drops in the value of its stock price.

In the wake of Starwood's offer, Hilton had indicated to analysts two weeks ago that it had no plans to increase its offer of $70 a share in cash and stock. But it didn't withdraw its bid.

It sweetened its offer Tuesday in advance of a Nov. 12 ITT shareholders meeting, at which Hilton is running a slate of candidates to replace ITT's board.

With about 118 million ITT shares outstanding, Hilton's new offer is worth about $9.4 billion while Starwood's bid is valued at about $9.7 billion.

Under its new offer, Hilton is proposing to pay cash for 55 percent of the ITT's shares and stock for the remainder.

Starwood's offer includes $67 a share in stock and $15 a share in cash.

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