The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 28 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 2 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
General Electric Under Jack Welch Created Sprawling Bureaucracy Compared to Teledyne
“While GE under Jack Walsh built layers of management and reporting requirements, creating a sprawling bureaucracy, Teledyne maintained its lean structure.”
Singleton Made Teledyne First US TV Maker to Exit Before Japanese Competition
“When American TV manufacturers still dominated the US market, Singleton anticipated the coming Japanese competition and exited the business entirely. This shocked industry observers. Packard Bell had a good market share and solid profits, but Singleton saw the…”
Parrish: Henry Singleton repurchased 90% of Teledyne shares over 12 years
“Over the next 12 years, he bought back 90% of Teledyne shares. The result earnings per share exploded a 311% increase in just five years.”
Roberts: The Only Way to Make Money Sometimes Is Staying Out
“The only way you can make money in some businesses is by not entering them.”
Teledyne Delivered 20.4% Annual Returns From 1963 to 1990
“From 1963 to 1990, Teledyne, the company that Henry Singleton helped build from scratch, delivered annual returns of 20.4%, while the S&P 500 managed a mere eight percent. If you'd invested 10,000 dollars in Teledyne in 1963, by 1990, you'd have over 1.8 Milli…”
Singleton Moved Teledyne Insurance Assets From Bonds to Depressed Equities
“During the 1968 to 74 period, when most investors considered bonds safe and stocks risky, Singleton took the opposite view. He instructed his insurance companies to move away from fixed income securities and toward equities when the stock market was depressed.”
Teledyne Succeeded by Combining Capital Allocation With Lean Operations
“In the end, what made Teledyne remarkable wasn't just Singleton's financial wizardry or Robert's operational discipline, but the seamless integration of the two, while most conglomerates of the era were ultimately dismantled or vastly underperformed the market…”
Teledyne's 1960s Stock-Funded Acquisitions Drove 374% Sales Growth
“And they purchased these companies using Teledyne's highly valued shares, often trading at 40 to 70 times earnings. They more than doubled the share count in the late sixties. But the financial results that followed more than made up for the shared dilution, t…”
Singleton Repurchased 8.6 Million Teledyne Shares at $200 in Final Buyback
“The same year, Singleton conducted his eighth and final major stock buyback, acquiring 8.6 million shares at 200 dollars per share, approximately 30 dollars above the market price. This reduced Teledyne's outstanding shares to just over twenty million.”
Teledyne Investors Achieved Approximately 3,000% Returns Between 1972 and 1983
“Shareholders who stayed with Teledyne from the first buyback in 1972 achieved gains of approximately 3000% by 1983, transforming many patient investors into multi-millionaires.”
Parrish: Teledyne became the highest-priced NYSE stock at $302 in 1984
“After this transaction, Teledyne's stock climbed to 302 dollars per share by September, making it the highest priced stock on the New York Stock Exchange.”
Teledyne Fired Its Entire M&A Team Simultaneously in 1969
“There was a whole team of people at Teledyne who had been taking care of the acquisitions, helping find these companies, working through the acquisition process, integrating them, And they were just laid off all at the same time.”
Singleton: Trading Divisions for Multiple Arbitrage Is Repulsive Financial Engineering
“Companies that will sell one division and buy another because today this division generally sports a low multiple, and the one they're buying has a high multiple, and they think that may rub off on the whole company. That absolutely turns me off. The whole con…”
Teledyne's Decentralized Model Influenced Berkshire Hathaway's Playbook
“Warren Buffett was an admitted singleton admirer, and we can see how Teledyne's decentralized structure with centralized capital allocation became central to Berkshire Hathaway's playbook.”
Teledyne Repurchased Over 90% of Its Outstanding Shares Over 12 Years
“In an era when virtually no companies bought back shares, Teledyne would conduct eight major share repurchases over the next 12 years, reducing the number of shares outstanding by more than 90%.”
Forbes Ranked Teledyne First in ROE Among Multi-Companies in 1980
“Among over 1000 major American companies, Teledyne ranked 12th in profitability, 15th in growth, and sixth in market performance. In the multi-companies category, Teledyne was first in return on equity, first in return on total capital, and second in growth in…”
Teledyne Acquired 130 Companies Before Abruptly Halting Deals in 1969
“Throughout the 19 sixties, Teledyne aggressively acquired more than 130 companies. But by 1969, Henry Singleton saw the acquisition prices head soar beyond rational value. Therefore, he slammed on the brakes, stunning Wall Street by making zero new deals.”
Venture Capitalist Arthur Rock Helped Take Teledyne Public in 1961
“Teledyne stock went on the market in 1961 with Arthur Rock,
Who would later become famous for backing Intel and Apple, helping in the IPO.”
Teledyne Stock Rose from $15 to $65 in One Year Following Avionics Win
“The victory sent Teledyne's stock soaring from 15 dollars to 65 dollars a share in just one year.”
Teledyne Evaluated Leaders Using the Average of Cash Flow and Profit
“Subsidiary presidents had real authority, but they were measured on the Teledyne return, the average of the cash flow and reported profit, ensuring that they couldn't hide behind accounting tricks.”
Parrish: Teledyne gathered monthly financial reports across 160 entities within two business days
“Teledyne's fiscal month ended on a Friday, and by Tuesday morning, reports from all 160 entities arrived.”
Splitting Businesses Into Smaller Units Keeps Operational Problems Visible
“We go to an extreme in splitting businesses up so that we can see problems which would be passed over in companies where the units are larger. By our plans, no one business all by itself will become too large.”
Teledyne and Its Spinoffs Reached a Combined Value of $691 by 1999
“Roberts noted that before the spinoff of Argonaut in 1986, Teledyne's stock price peaked at 367 dollars a share. By 1999, the combined value of all the companies was 691 dollars showing the lasting value Singleton had created.”
Teledyne Spun Off Argonaut at $234M Valuation After $87M Acquisition
“Teledyne had acquired Argonaut in 1969 for eighty-seven million. At the time of the spinoff, it traded at 20 dollars per share With a market value of two hundred and thirty four million. Shareholders received one share of Argonaut Group for each share of Teled…”
Henry Singleton borrowed against acquired companies' physical inventories for cash
“One technique he used was borrowing against the physical inventories of the companies that they had acquired.”
Teledyne Ran Its Corporate Headquarters With Fewer Than 50 Employees
“For a corporation of Teledyne's size, they ran a remarkably lean corporate office, fewer than 50 people at headquarters, who focused primarily on planning, reporting, and auditing the results of the individual companies they had acquired in the 19 sixties.”