Clevite Corp. Acquires Shockley Transistor Corp.

The Clevite Corp., Cleveland, Ohio, has acquired the assets of Shockley Transistor Corp., Palo Alto, Calif., a subsidiary of Beckman Instruments, Inc. The Clevite President, W. G. Laffer, said the acquisition will substantially augment the company's activities in the semiconductor component field. The Shockley unit, headed by Nobel Prize-winning physicist Dr. William Shockley, will become part of Clevite's Transistor Div. in Waltham, Mass. (Electronic Design, April 27, 1960, p. 21)

This sale was the beginning of the end for Shockley Transistor Corp., which was founded in 1954. Shockley attracted top talent to his company, including Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore. But this core group left the company in 1957 to found Fairchild Semiconductor, and Shockley's enterprise was never the same. Clevite was bought by ITT in 1965, and the Palo Alto plant was closed in 1969.