Armstrong World Industries emerged from bankruptcy last October as a new but still independent company.

It might not stay that way.

Lancaster-based Armstrong said today "it has initiated a review of its strategic alternatives" and has hired two advisers to assist in the process.

The announcement implies that some or all of the $3.6 billion floorings, ceilings and cabinets company eventually could be sold.

Or not, if no satisfactory offers surface.

"There can be no assurance as to the likelihood, terms or timing of any transaction," Armstrong's three-paragraph statement concludes.

So for now, the announcement triggers more questions than answers about the fate of Armstrong and its workers.

One analyst who follows Armstrong and its competitors said the disclosure "has been widely expected in the flooring industry."

Keith Hughes, of Atlanta-based investment banker SunTrust, Robinson & Humphrey, predicted suitors "will be coming out of the woodwork" for Armstrong.

Hughes believes private equity funds, many currently awash with cash, will be among the most aggressive potential buyers.

Armstrong, a cornerstone of the county economy for a century, has three locations here: its Columbia Avenue headquarters, a Dillerville Road residential flooring plant and a Marietta ceilings plant.

About 2,000 people work for Armstrong here. While that's down sharply from about 5,000 in 1990, the company remains one of the county's biggest industrial employers.

It entered bankruptcy in 2000 to permanently resolve a deepening glut of asbestos-injury claims that were draining Armstrong of tens of millions of dollars annually.

As part of its solution, Armstrong formed a trust to handle and pay all current and future asbestos-injury claims, which allege harm from exposure to insulation Armstrong installed decades ago.

Armstrong funded the trust with $1.8 billion, a sum that includes 66 percent of the common stock in the newly reorganized company.

In connection with Armstrong's review, the trust has hired three advisers of its own, Armstrong said today.

Obviously, what the trust decides to do with its two-thirds stake will go a long way toward determining the company's future.

Hughes, the analyst, said the involvement of the trust makes a potential sale "significantly more complicated," noting that the trust and Armstrong management have different responsibilities.

"The trust needs to work with management to get the best possible outcome," said Hughes.

Armstrong chief executive officer Michael D. Lockhart acknowledged that a post-bankruptcy sale of Armstrong would be "possible" in a 2003 interview.

The CEO added, "The trustees (who will run the trust) may decide that they'd like to liquidate their stock to diversify their holdings.

"Our job is to present them with what the alternatives are and help them evaluate those alternatives in an objective way, and one of the alternatives is to sell Armstrong," he said at the time.

If that turns out to be the trust's decision, the trust's Armstrong stock would fetch a strong price. It closed Wednesday at $46.53 a share, about $11 higher than its low point in early November.

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