Editing Ling-Temco-Vought (section)

===Ling-Temco-Vought===
In 1956, Ling bought L.M. Electronics, and in 1959, added [[Altec Lansing|Altec Electronics]], a maker of stereo systems and speakers. In 1960, Ling merged the company with [[Temco Aircraft]], best known for its [[missile]] work. In 1961, using additional funding from insurance businessman [[Troy Victor Post|Troy Post]] and Texas oil baron [[David Harold Byrd]], they acquired [[Vought|Chance Vought]] [[aerospace]] in a [[hostile takeover]].<ref name="Sobel Kings"/> The new company became '''Ling-Temco-Vought'''.

With low interest rates allowing the company to borrow huge sums, Ling built one of the major 1960s conglomerates. As long as the target company's earnings exceeded the interest on the loan (or [[corporate bond]]), or the company's price/earnings ratio was less than that of Ling-Temco-Vought's stock, the conglomerate became more profitable overall. Given the fairly unsophisticated stock research of the era, the company appeared to be growing without bound, and its share price rose. 

In 1964, Ling turned Ling-Temco-Vought into a [[holding company]] and established three public companies as [[subsidiary|subsidiaries]], LTV Aerospace, LTV Ling Altec, and LTV Electrosystems. LTV Aerospace received assets for Vought and a large part of Temco Aircraft. LTV Ling Altec contained Altec Electronics and other properties, and the rest went to LTV Electrosystems. The intention was to make the sum of the parts appear to be worth more than the whole. Ling used this technique to raise capital and buy more companies.<ref name="Sobel Kings"/> Portions of LTV Electrosystems were later spun off to [[E-Systems]], then part of [[Raytheon]] IIS, and since 2002, part of [[L-3 Communications]]-Integrated Systems (L-3/IS).

====Acquisitions====
In 1965, Ling added the wire and cable company [[Okonite]]. In 1967, they took over [[Wilson Sporting Goods|Wilson and Company]], which was twice the size of Ling-Temco-Vought. Wilson was a diverse company involved in meat packing, sporting goods, and pharmaceuticals.<ref name="Gaughan">{{cite book | title= Mergers, Acquisitions, and Corporate Restructurings |edition= 5 |first= Patrick A. |last= Gaughan |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=cPZDpDMF-dAC&pg=PA56 |publisher= John Wiley & Sons |year= 2010 |isbn= 978-0470881217 |pages= 56–57 }}</ref> Wilson's president Roscoe Haynie was not aware of the takeover scheme until two weeks before the takeover was complete.<ref name="FundingUniverse">{{cite web |url= http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/the-ltv-corporation-history/ |title= The LTV Corporation History |publisher= Funding Universe |year= 1999 |access-date= October 4, 2014 }}</ref> Ling later split Wilson into three parts (meat packing, sporting goods ([[Wilson Sporting Goods]]), and pharmaceuticals ([[Inolex|Wilson Pharmaceutical and Chemical]]), and spun them off into separate companies traded on the [[American Stock Exchange]].

In 1968, Ling-Temco-Vought added Greatamerica Corporation, [[Troy Victor Post|Troy Post]]'s holding company for [[Braniff International Airways]] and [[National Car Rental]],<ref name="Gaughan" /> and [[Jones and Laughlin Steel Company|J &amp; L Steel]]. In addition, it acquired resorts in [[Acapulco, Mexico|Acapulco]] and [[Guerrero, Mexico]], and [[Steamboat Ski Resort|Steamboat Springs, Colorado]]. By 1969, LTV had purchased 33 companies, employed 29,000 workers, and offered 15,000 separate products and services, and was one of the 40 biggest industrial corporations.

====Conglomerate and antitrust problems====
Ling-Temco-Vought had a combined sales of $3.6&nbsp;billion in 1969 (${{formatprice|{{inflation|USD|3600000000|1969}}}} today),<ref name="FundingUniverse" /> but investors found that the conglomerates were not growing any faster than the individual companies had before they were bought out. Share prices plummeted, sparking a [[bear market]], and a general feeling arose that conglomerates were to blame for the market woes. An antitrust lawsuit was filed that year. 

Eventually, the board of directors demoted James Ling in 1970, and he left the company, to be replaced by former Ling-Temco-Vought executive [[W. Paul Thayer|Paul Thayer]].