Word: comsat
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...share, demand for it was so great that brokers rationed it to 50 shares or less per customer and only the favored few got their piece of space. But professional Wall Streeters generally stood aloof, willing to sell it but not so willing to buy. Comsat might become the bluest of space-age blue chips, they said, but that was many profitless years away...
...seemed to care that Comsat's officers had put red warning flags all over the issue. Chairman Leo D. Welch and President Joseph Charyk cautioned that Comsat was a chancy venture that would not loft a satellite for another year or a profit for at least three. But buyers were motivated by a sense of patriotism, a desire to become charter members in an exciting enterprise, and the solid conviction that any company backed by the Government and by American Telephone & Telegraph Co. was ultimately bound to succeed. Said one Manhattan investor: "I'm buying this stock...
...shares that it sold a fortnight ago to A.T. & T. and other communications companies, Comsat last week disposed of another 5,000,000 shares to more than 500,000 individual investors-the biggest initial distribution in history. A few customers managed to get 50 shares, but most had to be content with ten or fewer. An IBM computer system printed and registered the entire issue, saving 25,000 man-hours of work. Sales were over the counter, with regular trading on the New York, Midwest and Pacific Coast stock exchanges expected to begin in July. The market held fairly firm...
Though A.T. & T.'s $58 million, holding is only two-thirds of what it bid for, the block is big enough to entitle Mother Bell to share a signal honor with the President of the U.S.: each will appoint three members to Comsat's 15-man board. International Telephone & Telegraph, which bought a 10.5% holding, will name one member, while General Telephone (3.5%) and RCA (2.5%), will join, with 159 other smaller communications companies-all of which got all the shares that they asked for-to elect two members...
This week Comsat will offer another 5,000,000 shares, also at $20, to the public. Because of brisk demand, brokers will limit purchases by individual customers to 50 shares or less, and then the shares will be traded on the New York Stock Exchange. The public will elect six directors. But small shareholders seldom take the initiative to put up a slate; the public directors of Comsat Corp. will probably be nominated by the Government-appointed organizers of Comsat. It thus looks as if the commanding voices in the new space communications company will belong to President Johnson...