Conglomerates: Second Salvo

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Washington's first big salvo against conglomerate corporations came only last month. It was fired by the Justice Department, which announced plans for an antitrust suit to divest Ling-Temco-Vought of its controlling interest in Jones & Laughlin Steel. Last week, "multimarket" companies, as they prefer to be called, quavered again as the Federal Trade Commission took aim at a merger by another big concern, Los Angeles-based Litton Industries.

Litton's latest merger is far smaller than James Ling's $425 million J. & L. deal, and does not even involve an American concern. The FTC's target is a pair of West German typewriter makers in which Litton (1968 sales: $1.9 billion) bought a majority interest last January. Their worldwide sales total some $52 million, but only $7.5 million comes from the U.S., where their Triumph-Adler brand of typewriters accounts for a minuscule share of the market. But the FTC complains that the acquisition tends to "lessen competition" in violation of the Clayton Antitrust Act because Litton already owns the Royal typewriter company, which accounts for 40% of the manual-and 11% of the electric-typewriter market in the U.S.

The accusation struck Litton as somewhat ironic. The company traces part of a 1968 profit slide to Royal's poor performance in the electric-typewriter market—of which 80% is held by IBM. Litton Chairman Charles B. ("Tex") Thornton promises to fight the suit on grounds that the Triumph-Adler deal would in fact promote "effective competition" in the U.S. market.