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2014 ANNUAL REPORT 9
Further afield, we bought Joyce/Dayton Corp., the
leading manufacturer of jacks, actuators and lift-
ing systems in North America. (Don’t think about
the jack that lifts your car. Think about jacks that lift
and stabilize heavy objects in industries like energy,
communications and many more.) When CEO Mike
Harris called to tell me about it, he brought a copy of
their impressive 1917 catalogue. This record of long-
term (really long-term) profitability is an important
part of why we wanted Joyce/Dayton to be part of
Graham Holdings.
Joyce/Dayton, along with Forney Corporation, which
we acquired last year, gives us two small specialty-
manufacturing businesses. We like both a lot.
What kinds of businesses do we want to buy?
Businesses we can understand. Businesses with a
proven record of profitability and a management
team that wants to continue to run the company
after selling it to us. And, businesses that aren’t too
capital intensive.
I’d like to thank Gerry Rosberg, our longtime senior
vice president in charge of planning and acquisitions,
for helping us buy these companies. And, Gerry and
I would both like to tell you that Stuart Farrell, the
youngest member of the Graham Holdings senior
corporate team, has been a star at identifying com-
panies that are sensible acquisition prospects for us.
/ / /
I mentioned earlier that we sold The Washington Post
building at 15th and L Streets, NW, our Company’s
home since 1950. This meant moving. With a pro-
longed gulp, knowing that two of our businesses
(education and health care) are federally regulated,
we decided to move our Company’s headquarters to
Northern Virginia, where we might see what it’s like
to have two home-state senators. We’ve learned (to
our sorrow—more later) the importance of educat-
ing members of Congress on issues that are impor-
tant to us. Our new headquarters is located at
1300 North 17th Street in Arlington, a couple of
blocks from the Rosslyn Metro stop.
/ / /
Since I have written about it in the past, I must
record the outcome of the Obama administration’s
“gainful employment” regulation.
The regulations, published last fall, are dreadful. They
will make success less likely on many goals that are
important to the administration and the country. A
smart regulation would throw out bad programs, but
see to it that the number of seats in good programs
expanded and that good institutions were encour-
aged to serve low-income students. A good regula-
tion would also encourage innovation.
We can acquire companies in businesses
we like, with management teams we
admire, in new fields. In the past three
years, we’ve added four businesses that
have been successful so far and will be
part of our Company for a long time.