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National Semiconductor history
National Semiconductor company history timeline
Founded in 1959 in Danbury, CT, National Semiconductor was in the forefront of the first transistors and integrated circuits.
By 1961 National had reached $3 million a year in sales, and its growth continued to climb rapidly.
Molectro was founded in 1962 in Santa Clara, California, by J. Nall and D. Spittlehouse, who were formerly employed at Fairchild Camera and Instrument Corporation.
In 1965, National sold $5.3 million worth of chips, a company record.
However, record sales did not correspond to record profits; National’s profits slumped to $238,000 in 1965 from $362,000 the year before.
The low stock price encouraged a substantial investment by East Coast financier Peter J. Sprague (son of the chairman of Sprague Electric Company), who became chairman of National in 1966 and set out to make the company a major player in the semiconductor industry.
“Confounding an Industry on Prices,” Business Week, November 21, 1970.
1970: National reaches sales of $42 million.
An October, 1976 announcement that it was building its own mainframes to sell in the commercial marketplace did not impress many.
National’s System 200 and 400 lines of large computers never got off the ground, due in part to renewed competition from the ever vigilant IBM. Itel had similar but more severe problems, forced by IBM price pressure in early 1979 to ask National for cheaper computers with which to compete.
During 1980 National merged repurchase into National Advanced Systems, formerly part of the consumer products group, and continued ITEL’s leasing of IBM-compatible mainframes (the machines were made by Hitachi).
Uttal, Bro, “The Animals of Silicon Valley,” Fortune, January 12, 1981.
In 1981, a handful of key National executives left the company to accept more lucrative offers elsewhere, among them Pierre Lamond, for years National's chief designer and engineer.
National, not renowned as a leader in new technology, introduced its 32-bit chip in 1984, six months before any competitor had one that was commercially available, and the product sold extremely well.
On August 5, 1986, National Semiconductor became the 20th company to register their domain nsc.comNational Semiconductor was an American semiconductor manufacturer which specialized in analog devices and subsystems, formerly with headquarters in Santa Clara, California, United States.
The company’s long-term efforts at diversification have met some success; by 1986 only 53% of revenues came from semiconductors and National was manufacturing more than 5,000 types of chips in a wide range of product lines.
Sporck, 59 years old in 1986, appointed two executive vice presidents, who are expected to vie for the top position when Sporck steps down.
National restructured in 1986.
In 1987, National Semiconductor purchased Fairchild and integrated what were then the Fairchild businesses into National’s operations.
The company made a turn-around in fiscal 1988, posting a $62 million profit.
The company sold its National Advanced Systems division in 1989.
Even after writing off $144 million in the massive reorganization of the company in 1991, National came up with a $120 million loss in the following year.
President Sporck and Chairman Sprague took vigorous measures to right their floundering ship, getting out of computers and point of sale equipment, dropping the two least profitable semiconductor lines, and in early 1991 replacing Sporck himself with Gilbert F. Amelio.
In 1994, National Semiconductor under Amelio posted record net revenues of US$2.29 billion.
In 1995, Amelio was elected as the chairman of the board of directors of National Semiconductor.
On March 11, 1997, National Semiconductor Corporation announced the US$550 million sale of a reconstituted Fairchild to the management of Fairchild with the backing of Sterling LLC, a unit of Citicorp Venture Capital.
On November 17, 1997, National Semiconductor and Cyrix announced the merger of the companies.
Revenues declined to $2.54 billion from $2.68 billion in 1997.
Miles, Robert H., Corporate Comeback: The Story of Renewal and Transformation at National Semiconductor, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1997.
Halla planned to use Cyrix chips as a base for the revolutionary new chip, telling Electronic News (April 6, 1998), "First the PC goes on a chip.
In May 1998 National paid $104.8 million to acquire ComCore Semiconductor, Inc., a maker of integrated circuits for computer networking and communications.
Based largely on the success of the WebPad, National formed the Information Appliance Division (highly integrated processors & "internet gadgets") in 1998.
In August 1999, Fairchild was launched as a public company on the New York Stock Exchange.
National incurred huge losses in its processor business and announced the sale of Cyrix to VIA in 1999.
In 1999, National Semiconductor also put out feelers for selling if not the whole, then a majority stake of, its fabrication plant in South Portland, Maine.
2000: National and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation partner to produce chips in Maine.
He predicted that IAs would overtake sales of PCs by the year 2000.
The cost of the acquisitions, ongoing research and development, and a weak chip market took its toll in 2001, forcing National to lay off about 10 percent of its workforce.
In 2003 National fared only slightly better: Sales reached $1.67 billion and income was still a loss but at $33.3 million.
The Information Appliance Division was sold to AMD in 2003.
Sales for 2004 climbed only to $1.98 billion, but income rose to just shy of $283 million, a healthy leap from the previous two years' losses.
2004: The company opens its first manufacturing facility in China.
For early 2005 National's sales continued to fluctuate, though earnings were strong.
On March 11, 2009, National announced plans to close its assembly and test plant in Suzhou, China, and its wafer fabrication plant in Arlington, Texas.
On October 9, 2009, Brian Halla announced his retirement as National's CEO. He remains executive chairman.
Don Macleod became National Semiconductor's chief executive officer on November 30, 2009.
He was named chairman of the board on May 31, 2010.
On April 4, 2011, Texas Instruments announced that it had agreed to buy National Semiconductor for $6.5 billion in cash.
On September 19, 2011, the Chinese minister approved the merger, the last one needed.
Since opening at the end of 2013, over 5,000 children have visited the Centre.
"National Semiconductor Corporation ." International Directory of Company Histories. . Encyclopedia.com. (June 21, 2022). https://www.encyclopedia.com/books/politics-and-business-magazines/national-semiconductor-corporation-1
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National Semiconductor competitors
| Company name | Founded date | Revenue | Employee size | Job openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Texas Instruments | 1930 | $15.6B | 29,888 | 204 |
| Intel | 1968 | $53.1B | 121,100 | 443 |
| Micron Technology | 1978 | $30.8B | 49,000 | 530 |
| Synopsys | 1986 | $6.1B | 15,001 | 43 |
| Cirrus Logic | 1984 | $1.8B | 1,500 | 49 |
| Xilinx | 1984 | $3.1B | 4,891 | - |
| Amd | 1969 | $25.8B | 15,500 | 547 |
| Maxim Integrated | 1983 | $2.6B | 7,100 | 1 |
| IBM | 1911 | $62.8B | 270,000 | 4,174 |
| Microchip Technology | 1989 | $7.6B | 19,500 | 192 |
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