Is this a proper use of NoFollow?

[pleeker]

Hypothetical situation: Your company has 8-10 smaller divisions that are not in the same industry and have no direct relation to one another. (One is in fashion/clothing, one is in electronics, etc.) Each division has its own web site with a unique domain.

You want each web site to link to the other since you're all in the same "family", so you put text links in the footer of each web site with links to the other home pages.

If you "nofollow" those links, do you reduce the possibility of this looking like a unnatural link network of unrelated sites?

[jdevalk]

I'd say yes, but you won't look unnatural anyway, because there probably is a site which says these companies belong together? I don't think i'd use nofollow here, unless you're seeing that you're being penalized for these links.