Shockley Semiconductor

company created by William Shockley, inventor of the transistor

parent of Fairchild Semiconductor, grandparent of Intel

I believe the story is that William Shockley's mother happened to live in Palo Alto (Silicon Valley), so when he left AT&T it was the first place he wanted to go.

funded by BeckmanInstruments after convincing Arnold O. Beckman that a substantial technological and economic opportunity lay in silicon semiconductor electronics. The Palo Alto-based firm met the same fate as many high-technology start-ups that followed: early years of R&D struggle, limited commercial success, and gradual disappearance as a recognizable entity after a series of acquisitions. In the late 1950s the company introduced a line of four-layer silicon diodes to the market; in 1961 Beckman sold the operation to the Clevite Corporation; in 1965 Clevite sold its semiconductor operations to ITT; and by the end of the 1960s the Shockley Semiconductor facility was shuttered.