Transitron Electronic Corporation was a semiconductor device fabrication company of the United States. It was founded by Leo and David Bakalar incorporated in Wakefield, Massachusetts, in 1952. David Bakalar was the president from 1952 to 1984. In 1986 the company went out of business, failing to keep pace with the rapid advances in technology."The Demise Of Transitron"
''The New York Times''"David Bakalar - Transistor Museum Historic Profile"
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History

The company was established at the time of the economic boom in Massachusetts. Its first successful product was the gold bonded germanium diode, widely used in computers, military equipment, etc. After that the company manufactured silicon rectifiers (which David claims were the world's first ones), grown junction silicon NPN transistors, silicon diodes, germanium diodes, silicon/germanium micro-diodes, silicon references, silicon regulators, silicon controlled rectifiers, bilateral switching diodes, etc. At its heyday Transitron employed 1,600 people. In 1959 ''Time Magazine'' reported it was number 3 American semiconductor company, after Texas Instruments and General Electric, while ''Fortune Magazine'' placed it at number 2, with estimated 1959 sales of $40 million."Companies"
at the Computer History Museum A number of senior industry persons, including Wilfred Corrigan, Dave Fullagar, Pierre Lamond, Nick DeWolf, George Wells, and Thomas Longo used to work in Transitron. In December 1959 the company went public, with initial public offering, IPO of 1,000,000 shares at $36 each. The first week closed at $43 per share."Corporations: The Transistor Tycoons"
/ref> After going out of business, David Bakalar devoted his time to sculpture; see Renaissance (Bakalar), ''Renaissance'' (1989) and ''TV Man or Five Piece Cube with Strange Hole'' (1993).

Demise

By 1986, not being successful in the semiconductor and transistor industry, the company became indebted and sold one of its subsidiary to EF Hutton as part of buyout and soon went out of business.

References

{{reflist Defunct semiconductor companies of the United States Wakefield, Massachusetts