FACTBOX - Five facts about CIT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - CIT, a lender to hundreds of thousands of small and mid-sized U.S. businesses, is struggling to stay afloat after bailout talks with the government ended.

Here are a few facts about the company, which is now fighting to stave off bankruptcy:

* The company was founded in St Louis in 1908 and first sold stock to the public in 1924.

* Tyco International agreed to buy CIT for about $10 billion (6.1 billion pounds) in 2001 but was forced to spin it off to shareholders a year later as Tyco struggled with a massive debt burden from such acquisitions.

* The commercial lender has more than $60 billion in finance and leasing assets and boasted on its website that 1 million business customers depended on it for financing.

* CIT, a Fortune 500 company that is a member of the Standard & Poor's 500 Index, closed at $1.64 on Wednesday, down from over $60 in June 2007.

* CIT Group, which had been based in Livingston, New Jersey, moved to a brand new, 28-story, glass-encased tower on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue in New York in April 2006.

(Reporting by Sweta Singh; Editing by Gary Hill)