Teledyne Hastings history

In 1966, Teledyne bought Vasco Metals Corporation, which started a third wave of acquisitions, in specialty metals.

In 1967, Teledyne continued its impressive growth.

TJT was founded in 1969 in a north suburb of Philadelphia Pennsylvania as Judson Infrared, Inc., and since that time has specialized in the development and manufacture of a comprehensive product line of infrared detector products covering the near to the far infrared spectrum.

Ryan's Firebee model controlled 75 percent of the market in the early 1970's, but Teledyne's emphasis on accumulating cash opened the field to more innovative competitors.

For the ten years previous to 1971, the company led the Fortune 500 ranking in earnings and earnings per share growth.

In 1972, Argonaut, one of Teledyne's six financial companies, decided to expand from the worker's compensation field into the medical malpractice insurance business.

Net income soared to $101.7 million on sales of $1.71 billion in 1974.

By 1978, through Teledyne, Singleton had gained effective control of five other companies, owning 22 percent of Litton's common stock, 28.5 percent of Curtiss-Wright, nearly 20 percent of Walter Kidde, 22 percent of Brockway Glass, and 20 percent of Reichhold Chemicals.

In 1981, the insurance operations, which contributed 25 percent of Teledyne's total revenue, were once again in trouble.

The stock portfolio, which had been built up at the expense of the rest of the company, was also in trouble during 1982.

In 1983, Teledyne's sales fell from $3.24 billion to $2.86 billion, while net profit fell 37 percent to $248.7 million.

In 1986, the company spun off Argonaut Insurance and began to divest some of the numerous operations it had acquired over the previous 15 years.

TJT was acquired by EG&G in 1987 and operated as a division of the Optoelectronics Group.

By 1988, Teledyne was back on track when it reported a profit of $392 million on revenues of $4.5 billion--an impressive return on equity of nearly 20 percent.

Under Rutledge and Rice, Teledyne's operations were consolidated from 65 units into 21 companies, reduced from a high of 130 in 1990.

In 1991, TJT established a space department in addition to the standard catalog products.

After 1992, Teledyne pled guilty to many accusations cited in the lawsuits brought against it and paid nearly $30 million to settle charges.

In August 1996, Teledyne, Inc. was acquired by Allegheny Ludlum Corp., a Pittsburgh-based producer of stainless and specialty steels.

TJT ISO-9001 certification in 1998 and continues to practice total management culture throughout the entire organization.

In November 2000 LeCroy Corporation was certified on the first official day of the newly mandated ISO9001:2000 level of quality certification.

In 2001, Teledyne combined its energy systems business with that of Energy Partners, Inc., a Florida company dedicated to commercializing proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell components and systems.

In February 2004,the company announced it was buying assets of Leeman Labs, Inc., a producer of spectrometers used for environmental and quality control sampling, for $8 million.