Television digest with electronic reports (Jan-Dec 1959)

VOL. 15: No. 32 17 Electronics-Electrical Rankings Among 1958’s 100 Largest Foreign Industrials Reprinted with permission from Fortune Magazine Rank ’58 ’57 Company SALES * ($000) ASSETS 2 NET PROFITS » ($000) ($000) EMPLOYES 6 8 Philips’ Lamp Works (Holland) . 946,053 1,099,571 64,161 174,000 7 10 Siemens (Germany) 794,524 667,619$ 19,881** 179,000 25 41 AEI (Britain) 508,383 563,191 12,607 94,934 32 30 AEG (Germany) 465,476 406,783$ 8,405** 105,600 36 38 English Electric (Britain) 453,600 384,249 11,459 80,000 42 56 Brown, Boveri (Switzerland) 426,078 429,067 4,764$ 62,900 46 — Hitachi (Japan) 415,728 521,869 33,063 60,541 68 65 British Insulated Callender’s Cables (Britain) . . . 308,000 227,665 8,597 35,000 71 71 General Electric (Britain) 292,348 305,546 4,665 62,500 79 — Robert Bosch (Germany) 273,810* 95,849$ 1,046$ 53,000 84 81 ASEA (Sweden) 257,476 267,399 7,035 35,700 87 — Tokyo Shibaura Electric (Japan) 238,431 274,147 20,366 40,339 88 — Cie. General d’Electricite (France) 238,095 143,942$ 5,095$ 35,000$ 92 — Northern Electric (Canada) 230,113 169,379 7,171 14,500 ^ Sales are consolidated third-party sales for fiscal years ending no later than March 31, 1959. ® Assets are consolidated balance-sheet totals. ’ Profits are consolidated net profits after taxes & all deductions. ♦ Fortune estimate. ** Unconsolidated, vious fiscal year. t Partly consolidated, t Pre Fortune’s First 100 Foreign Firms; The 1958 recession apparently was zeroed-in on American industry, with only a backlash lightly tapping foreign makers. Aug. Fortune, in its annual listing of the 100 largest foreign industrial firms, points out that the group soundly outperformed the top U.S. industrial corporations (Vol. 15:28). The foreign firms suffered only a 1.9% profit decline on sales that increased 1.6% over 1957 levels. The American firms, however, receded 17.8% in profit on sales that were 6.1% off the 1957 pace. Fourteen electronics-electrical manufacturing firms made the Top 100 listing — topped by Holland’s Philips in 6th place, up from 8th in the 1957 ratings, and Germany’s Siemens, in 7th, compared with its 10th spot ranking last year. New to the Top 100 are 2 Japanese electronics firms: Hitachi in the 46th spot & Tokyo Shibaura Electric (Toshiba) in 87th place. Nine of the 14 firms are repeaters — and of these, 5 improved their position, one held firm, and 3 fell below their 1957 ratings. (See table above.) RCA’s new high-speed electronic data-processing system will “analyze returns & project trends” in NBC News coverage of the 1960 Presidential elections. Known as the RCA 501, it is reportedly the “first fully transistorized system designed primarily for business usage.” Plans call for election returns to be fed from NBC News election central at 30 Rockefeller Plaza to the RCA 501 service center currently being installed in the Wall St. area. Olympic will use record-high advertising this fall to promote its 25th anniversary lines of TV-radio-stereo. Consumer sales v.p. Morton M. Schwartz said last week that the fall budget will run 20% ahead of 1958’s, will embrace 23 Sunday newspaper supplements, mass-circulation consumer magazines {Life, Look SatEvePost, others) and trade publications. Motorola enters closed-circuit TV equipment field with a camera & 14-in. monitor, shown for the first time at the Associated Police Communications Officers convention last week in Denver. Motorola will manufacture original-equipment radios for Ford’s and Chrysler’s new compact cars. Trade Personals: Robert S. Burnap retires as commercial engineering mgr., RCA electron tube div., succeeded by Edward C. Hughes Jr., formerly commercial engineering programs administrator. Bumap will continue as a consultant with the div. . . . Owen H. Klepper named merchandising dept, sales promotion mgr., Philco consumer products div.; John E. Kelly appointed merchandising dept, adv. mgr.; John J. Kane, mkt. development mgr., electronics . . . Warren E. Dalbke named CBS Electronics equipment sales district mgr., headquartering in Chicago . . . Harold V. Hoffman appointed Eitel-McCullough personnel dir. T. Edward Rogers named Philco parts & accessory div. gen. sales mgr., succeeding William J. Nagy, recently named div. merchandise mgr. (Vol. 15:31). Dr. Fin J. Larsen, named to new post of research v.p., Minneapolis-Honeywell . . . Dr. Henry Marchman named v.p. & engineering dept, mgr., Rheem Semiconductor Corp., newly formed subsidiary of Rheem Manufacturing Co. . . . Charles H. Meuche promoted from Webcor liaison engineer to v.p., govt, electronics div. Rod Kershenstein named professional products mktg. dir., Telectro Industries . . . Brig. Gen. John C. Monahan, now deputy chief of Army’s Security Agency, becomes Signal Corps research & development chief Sept. 1 . . . Brig. Gen. Charles M, Baer, ex-NATO communications coordinating committee, assigned to Army Signal School at Ft. Monmouth, N.J. as commandant. Semiconductor standards & marketing data will be collated in a new trade-group program jointly announced by the EIA & National Electrical Manufacturers Assn. (NEMA). GE’s H. B. Fancher represents EIA members, and Clevite’s P. D. Goodman speaks for NEMA members in the joint operations. Obituary Richard L. Bowditch, 58, a Sylvania director, died July 31 in Boston. He was chairman of C. H. Sprague & Son fuel company, and head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in 1953-54.