Chicago Firm Negotiating To Buy Argus Division

Chicago Firm Negotiating
To Buy Argus Division

Negotiations are going
on for outright purchase
of-the Argus Cameras Di-
vision by, Mansfield Indus-
tries, Inc., of Chicago, it
was learned today.

Herbert R. Leopold, Mans-
field Industries president, told
The News from Chicago that
he expects to be in Ann Arbor
tomorrow or Friday.

"If an additional announce-
ment is to be made, it will be
made at that time," Leopold
said, in announcing that ne-
gotiations for purchase of the
camera division are under
way.

Leopold declined to make any
further statement on the ques-
tion of Argus' future in Ann
Arbor.

Argus officials here were
silent on the acquisition move
by Mansfield. A Sylvania Elec-
tric Products, Inc., spokesman
in New York said he knew
nothing about it. The spokes-
man did say that Sylvania,
which owns Argus Cameras, is
frequently approached in re-
gard to the sale of its divisions.

Mansfield Industries manu-
facturers motion picture pro-
jectors and slide projectors and

other products, concentrating
its production at plants in
Spring Grove Minn., and
Tokyo, Japan. The concern em-
ploys 400 at Spring Grove and
corporate headquarters in Chi-
cago and 600 in Tokyo. |

Argus manufactures a line |
of motion picture and slide '
projectors, motion picture
cameras, 3amm cameras and
other products, employing
about 700 persons here.
Argus was acquired by Syl-
vania on Jan. 1, 1957. Its slide
projector production was shift-
ed to a new 100,000-square-foot
plant in Columbia, S. C., last
year.