Weekly television digest (Jan-Dec 1960)

22 MARCH 14, 1960 Skiatron Swiss Deals Cited: A note of international mys tery was injected last week by SEC attoi-neys into the stock-registration hearings for Skiatron Electronics. That organization is accused of filing inadequate & inaccurate data on its pay-TV system (Vol. 16:9 p20). The featured witness on the stand as the on-&-off proceeding ran through another 2 days was John Rush, partner in the Swiss-American Corp., N.Y., and American correspondent for Credit Suisse of Zurich. He testified that, on instructions from Credit Suisse, he “picked up” 77,000 shares of Skiatron Electronics stock from Pres. Arthur Levey between June 1957 & Dec. 1959 and sold them on the U.S. market for an unidentified “special account” in the Swiss bank, where the proceeds were deposited. Under Swiss banking laws anonymity of customers can be maintained, the SEC lawyers pointed out. The hearings were recessed by SEC trial examiner Robert N. Hislop until March 17 before the Swiss bank transactions were explored further. Other witnesses last week included N.Y. brokers who added details to earlier testimony about complicated deals in Skiatron Electronics stock — many of them involving Matthew (Matty) Fox’s Skiatron of America, licensee of the pay-TV system. Fox himself was not called to the stand. Prior to the resumption of the public proceedings this week, SEC counsel & Skiatron Electronics lawyers will try to work out stipulations about the company’s business affairs. “We want to reach agreement on Skiatron’s chances of success or lack of them — or what they are, anyway,” one SEC source told us. If no agreement is reached, more witnesses probably will be summoned by SEC. Perkin-Elmer Corp., Norwalk, Conn, maker of elec ti’onic instruments, reports slight increases in sales & earnings in the 6 months to Jan. 31: 1960 Net sales $8,656,174 Net income 342,919 Per common share 304 Common shares 1,146,350 For the quarter to Jan. 31: Net sales $5,409,453 Net income 287,369 Per common share 254 1959 $8,166,112 326,757 304 1,090,330 $3,880,764 172,361 164 Gabriel Co. reports a decline in profit despite sharply increased sales in 1959. The Cleveland producer of automotive parts, antennas, microwave equipment (Gabriel electronics div.) notes an “extraordinary charge” in 1959 of $40,901, representing a loss on the settlement of a govt.contract claim of a now-merged subsidiary. For the year ended Dec. 31: 1959 Net sales $28,836,253 Net income 536,906 Per com. share (after pfd.) 114 Common shares 675,838 1958 $22,825,684 545,066 S04 661,038 Minnesota Mining & Mfg. Co. scored record sales & earnings in 1959. Its first consolidated report for worldwide operations shows a net income of more than $63.5 million ($3.74 a share) on sales topping $500 million. Tape & allied products accounted for 21% of total 3-M sales. Domestic & Canadian operations for the year ended Dec. 31: 1959 1958 Sales $446,580,323 $376,293,016 Net income 60,262,440 43,379,033 Per common shai'e 3.54 2.58 Speer Carbon Co. (components) reports record sales & net Income in 1959. For 12 months to Dec. 31 (1958 pershare earnings adjusted to reflect 2-for-l split in July 1959): Net sales Net income Per common share 1959 $23,525,268 1,970,817 2.20 1958 $18,338,899 1,176,034 1.30 Standard Coil Products Co., Melrose Park, 111. producer of TV tuners, nearly tripled income on a healthy salfes rise in the year ended Dec. 31 : Net sales Net income Per common share Common shares . 1959 $73,765,428 1,523,379 114 1,983,553 1958 $69,489,636 558,887 364 1,568,182 Globe-Union, Milwaukee maker of batteries, automotive parts, electronic components (Centralab div.), netted strong sales & profit gains in 1959, according to the pre liminary consolidated report for the year ended Dec. 31: Net sales Net income Per common share Common shares . , 1959 $65,170,127 2,269,746 .2.72 834,190 1958 $59,246,085 1,466,621 1.78 825,310 Erie Resistor Corp. reports a substantial 1959 decline in net income, stemming mainly from a 3-month strike in the 2nd quarter. For the year ended Dec. 31: Sales Net income Per common share 1959 $24,506,569 359,340 354 1958 $21,202,186 510,441 514 Textron Electronics scored net earnings of $384,000 (18^ a share on 2,140,000 common shares) on $9,884,000 sales in the 7 months of 1959 following its formation. Textron Electronics, subsidiary of Textron, Inc., was organized in mid-1959 to take over the operations of Textron div. MB Electronics, subsequently acquired other businesses in the electronics & related fields: Globe Electronics (Council Bluffs, la.), G. C. Electronics (Rockford, 111.), Schafer Custom Engineering (Burbank, Cal.). For the full 1959 year, the divisions now owned by Textron Electronics had a combined net profit of $892,000 (31^ on 2,890,000 shares) on $22,609,000 sales. Textron Electronic sales currently are running at an annual rate of $27.5 million. The company “hopes” to acquire other companies, expand into a large electronics concern. Sonar Radio Corp., Brooklyn-based maker of marine electronic & radio equipment, last week made a public offering of 180,000 shares of common, priced at $3 a share (Vol. 16:5 p22). The offering was by George, O’Neill & Co. Inc., and associates. After the sale. Sonar will have 410,940 shares of common outstanding. Proceeds will be used to establish new production, research and development facilities, increase working capital, etc. Sonar was formed in 1946. Sales climbed from $474,400 for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1957 to $806,500 in the 1959 fiscal year. Telectro Industries expects that its 1959 net will finalize at about $175,000 (about 30^ a share) on sales topping $5.1 million. Pres. Harry Sussman forecasts the 1960 volume at $7.5 million, and notes “we are in good shape to handle the growth that lies ahead.” Expected to help Telectro’s 1960 sales picture are a transistorized tape recorder & a slow-scan TV system known as Telectro-Vision.