Teledyne Relays history

In 1967, Teledyne continued its impressive growth.

In 1969, Teledyne's sales surpassed the $1 billion mark.

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.

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.

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

That same year, Teledyne took a $49.1 million loss on its stake in GAF, and in December 1985 the company sold its 6.7 percent share in GAF.

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.

TESP designed, developed, and qualified the United States Navy's NACES Ejection Seat Electronic Sequencer, which has been in continuous production since 1989.

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

In 1993, Roberts retired and was replaced by William P. Rutledge.

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

Their combined 1998 revenues were $800 million.

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.

TESP completed a major upgrade of the NACES ejection seat sequencer and production deliveries began in 2002.

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.