An Unconventional Conglomerateur
Henry Singleton and Teledyne
Henry Singleton has the best operating and capital deployment record in American business . . . if one took the 100 top business school graduates and made a composite of their triumphs, their record would not be as good as Singleton’s.
—Warren Buffett, 1980
I change my mind when the facts change. What do you do?
—John Maynard Keynes
In early 1987, Teledyne, a midsize conglomerate with a reputation for unconventional behavior, declared a dividend. This seemingly innocuous event attracted inordinate attention in the business press, including a front-page article in the Wall Street Journal. What did the Journal find so newsworthy?
For most of the twentieth century, public ...
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