1970s Forbes article on Henry Singleton

[Liberty]

Thought many here would enjoy it:

 

http://www.scribd.com/doc/18173672/fs1979

 

If you know of other sources (online or offline) to learn more about him and his thinking on capital allocation, please post them here.

 

I've read a good chunk of Distant Force, but sadly the book can be pages and pages of lists of acquisitions and it seems like while chapters barely mention henry and rarely go very deep in his thinking. Not very satisfying so far, though maybe it gets better later on in the book...

[augustabound]

Sweet, thanks for this.  Packer mentioned it in another thread and I couldn't find it. 

 

The Manual of Ideas has a nice list of articles on Singleton and Teledyne,

http://seekingalpha.com/instablog/315877-the-manual-of-ideas/30189-the-manual-of-ideas-on-business-leader-henry-singleton-founder-of-teledyne-audio

[Liberty]

Thanks for posting this, looks like a good overview!

[Guest JoelS]

Just wanted to pass on an anecdote. I flew from Denver to Miami yesterday and had the good fortune to sit beside someone who worked for Teledyne and knew Henry singleton well. This gentleman went to Harvard Business School, worked on the minute man bomb, and ran a $400m fund that did 17% since 1983. Very enjoyable plane ride. What he said about Singleton:

 

- Brilliant man

- never saw him smile once

- he would negotiate directly with company management on acquisitions. (out of the blue) if they came to an agreement on price he would request they didn't publicise it in any way. So when it hit the newspapers it was much later on. People never knew this. Therefore there was little arbitrage for Wall Street if I understood the man correctly.

- an analyst come up to him and asked something along the lines of "what do you think of so and so's management style?" - singleton just looked at him and said directly, "look, just watch how I do it"

 

[Liberty]

Thanks for sharing JoelS. Must've been quite the trip! If there's one person I'd like to know more about how their thought process worked, it's Singleton.