Weekly television digest (Jan-Dec 1960)

VOL. 16: No. 18 21 Packard-Bell Electronics sales & earnings declined in fiscal-1960’s first half despite a 30% spurt in sales of the home products div., Pres. Robert S. Bell told the San Francisco Society of Security Analysts last week. A major factor in the overall decline, he explained, was a 34% drop in sales of the technical products div. Discussing PackardBell’s increasing participation in industrial & military electronics, he said: “It has been estimated that the electronics industry will gross $20 billion annually by 1970. Of this amount, about $9 billion will go into industrial electronics, in such important areas as data-processing equipment, industrial process controls, communications and closed circuit TV. Our long-range planning toward the industrial electronics field does not mean that our interest & activity in military electronics have lessened.” During the first half, he noted, sales of Packard Bell Computer Corp. increased 194%; sales of the service div. gained 6%. For 6 months ended March 31: 1960 1959 Net sales $23,712,089 $24,125,962 Net income 491,101 717,723 Per common share 61^ 1.04 Common shares 811,727 691,600 American Television & Radio Co., St. Paul, accused last year of falsifying an SEC stock registration exemption statement (Vol. 15:27 p24), has agreed to a U.S. District Court order there enjoining it & Pres. Albert A. Goffstein from further stock sales. SEC applying for the temporary injunction, had accused the company & Goffstein of making over-the-counter deals in securities despite suspension of the 1959 statement. The federal court order forbids any further violation of anti-fraud provisions of the Securities Act. In last year’s action, SEC challenged ATR claims about the market for its auto radio vibrators and for a “unique” TV merchandising plan. Wometco Enterprises has extended its enterprises by acquiring a controlling interest in the Miami Seaquarium, Pres. Mitchell Wolf son announced at the first annual stockholders meeting recently. The TV-radio broadcasting, theater-chain and vending-machine concern had a net income of $936,336 on a gross of $10,364,753 in 1959, he reported. Wometco’s stock is sold over-the-counter. It has 1,426 stockholders in 32 states, Canada & the Bahamas. Reports & comments available: AB-PT, discussion, Schweickart & Co., 29 Broadway, N.Y. 6 . . . General Dynamics, review, Penington, Colket & Co., 70 Pine St., N.Y. 5 . . . Applied Electronics Corp. of N.J., prospectus, S. D. Fuller & Co., 26 Broadway, N.Y. 4 . . . NAFI Corp., prospectus, Shields & Co., 44 Wall St., N.Y. 5. Audio Devices, maker of magnetic tape & discs, anticipates $7 million sales in 1960, more than 20% over 1959. So said Pres. William T. Hack last week at the company’s stockholders meeting. Common Stock Dividends Corporation Period Amt. Payable Stk. of Record Desilu Productions .... Q $0.15 May 27 May 13 P. R. Mallory Q .35 Jun. 10 May 11 Oak Mfg Q .25 Jun. 15 Jun. 1 Sonotone Q .07 Jun. 30 Jun. 3 Stanley Warner Q .30 May 25 May 9 StewartWarner Q .35 Jun. 11 May 20 Thompson Ramo Woold Q .35 Jun. 15 May 31 Tung-Sol Q .35 Jun. 2 May 12 Walt Disney Q .10 Jul. 1 Jun. 17 Westinghouse Q .30 Jun. 1 May 9 Zenith Q .40 Jun. 30 Jun. 10 SKIATRON PROSPECTS DIM: The future of the Skiatron pay-TV system depends now on the financial health of Matty Fox — and neither the diagnosis nor prognosis of his situation is heartening. All sides in a lengthy SEC case agreed on that last week. Winding up SEC hearings on charges that Skiatron TV & Electronics filed a misleading stock registration statement (Vol. 16:17 pl8), lawyers representing SEC, the company, Skiatron TV Pres. Arthur Levey and Fox & his Skiatron of America signed a 23-page stipulation of accepted facts — all of them gloomy. The stipulation — relating that Fox’s Skiatron of America, sole licensee of the pay-TV system, has total liabilities of nearly $4,650,000, only $1,000 cash, $17,000 in other current assets and “no funds for its current business operations” — said : “A solution for Fox’s financial position is therefore a condition precedent to the development, promotion & operation of a subscription TV system by the licensee for the benefit of the registrant [Skiatron TV]. “Fox’s present sources of credit are limited because of the foregoing indebtedness & the unavailability of collateral. In this connection. Fox does not own any Skiatron, Guild Films or Les Fabrics stock, and his interest in Television Industries Inc. [see Vol. 16:14 p21] is limited to a beneficial interest in securities which are already pledged. He has no other substantial beneficial interest in publicly owned companies.” Skiatron of America “has no source of income at the present time,” the stipulation conceded. And as for Levey’s Skiatron TV : “The registrant has no available source of income at the present time sufficient to enable it to finance with its own resources a subscription TV system. It must rely upon Fox and/or Skiatron of America Inc., or some successor to the ‘Fox franchise.’ ” Statement Filed April 28 The statement was signed for Skiatron TV by the pay-TV firm’s special counsel ex-SEC Chmn. James M. Landis; for Levey by Julian Jawitz; for Fox & Skiatron of America by Francis Purcell. It was filed April 28 with SEC examiner Robert N. Hislop at a brief Washington hearing at which it also was agreed that an intermediate report & recommendations by Hislop would be bypassed in favor of direct referral of the Skiatron TV registration case to the full Commission. The opposing SEC & Skiatron TV lawyers in the proceedings have until May 19 to file briefs. Then SEC will decide whether to: (1) Issue a stop order against Skiatron TV’s 1959 registration statement, invalidating it. (2) Lift SEC’s suspension of trading in Skiatron TV stock, permitting the company to get back into the market again. Delisting of Skiatron TV stock from the American Stock Exchange was not an issue in the registration hearings. Such a move against the pay-TV company would require SEC or the American Stock Exchange to institute a separate case against Skiatron TV and then carry it through additional hearings to a ruling by SEC. The stipulation contained one section, titled “contingencies,” which summarized Skiatron’s (and Fox’s) payTV problems this way: “The following conditions & events, in particular, must occur before the pay-TV system as conceived by the licensee begins operations: “(A) Capital. The capital required for the initiation of the wire system as contemplated consists of 3 types.