Irwin L. Jacobs said he sold his stake in ITT.

The Minneapolis financier said he sold his stake of just under 5% “within the last few weeks,” a move that would seem to defuse the greatest outstanding threat of an unfriendly takeover of the conglomerate. Jacobs, who had urged the company to sell assets to raise its stock price, said he “found no cooperation” among other shareholders in his effort to raise the company’s market value. Jacobs had sought an alliance with Jay Pritzker of Chicago and the Anschutz family of Denver.