4 ms·

Fairchild Semiconductor was a trillion-dollar startup in today's dollars

25 points by finkin1 12y ago

kurtle 12y ago
The original and updated title are a bit misleading. I expected an article showing some valuation of Fairchild in 1950/1960's dollars to be equal to $1 trillion in 2014 dollars. That's not the case. TC is making the argument that 92 companies today had some contact with Fairchild and if you sum these 92 companies valuations you get $2.1 trillion. And the barrier for whether it's an offshoot of Fairchild is pretty tenuous. For example, they count Apple in the total because Steve Jobs had conversations with Robert Noyce (co-founder of Fairchild) when they were starting. Maybe it's just me but this seems like far reaching hyperbole.
- coryl 12y ago
  Just imagine the networth of the guy who invented the wheel
- defen 12y ago
  > they count Apple in the total because Steve Jobs had conversations with Robert Noyce (co-founder of Fairchild) when they were starting. The initial $250,000 investment in Apple came from Mike Markkula, who made his money from Fairchild options.
- aswanson 12y ago
  Maybe it's just me but this seems like far reaching hyperbole. It's not you, it's typical lowbrow techcrunch idiocy. What amazes me is not the stupidity of this blog, but the fact that there are enough dumb people interested in tech to support sites like this. I've never clicked on a TC link here based on HN commentary alone. But somehow, a talentless, unaccomplished hack like Arrington was able to take this idiocy to a multi mm cashout. I dont get it.
finkin1 12y ago
The original and current title are definitely misleading. These quotes from the article clear it up: "Our team at Endeavor Insight recently worked to quantify the impact of Fairchild Semiconductor and its co-founders. We identified over 130 Bay Area tech companies that were trading on the NASDAQ or the New York Stock Exchange. Our analysis indicates that about 70 percent of these firms can be traced directly back to the founders and employees of Fairchild. The total impact of these businesses is staggering. The 92 public companies that can be traced back to Fairchild are now worth about $2.1 trillion, which is more than the annual GDP of Canada, India, or Spain. These companies also employ over 800,000 people."
- judk 12y ago
  Nonsensical comparison between value ($) and GDP ($/yr): check.
- judk 12y ago
  Why did you submit an article you know to be bogus?
jason_slack 12y ago
My Wife's Grandmother worked at Fairchild for many years in her 20's-30's. She worked on a "computer" all day. When she left she never touched a computer again. Never a smart phone or ipad. She passed April 2014. She kept scraps from spools of gold wire that was used as solder. She twisted it all up and gave them to family.
teawithcarl 12y ago
Fairchild and Honeywell once considered a merger. New name of the company ... "Fairwell, Honeychild".
robotresearcher 12y ago
Several companies listed at the link below have a value of >$1 trillion current USD. They are roughly: shipping/trading companies in European colonial times, oil companies and most recently, American tech companies. Fairchild was great, but ultra-big business has been around a while. https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/photos/most-valuable-companies-ever-adjusted-for-inflation-1351801906-slideshow/most-valuable-companies-in-history-adjusted-for-inflation-photo--1113431046.html https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/photos/most-valuable-companies-...
dang 12y ago
This post was killed by user flags.

25 points by finkin1 12y ago

The original and updated title are a bit misleading. I expected an article showing some valuation of Fairchild in 1950/1960's dollars to be equal to $1 trillion in 2014 dollars. That's not the case. TC is making the argument that 92 companies today had some contact with Fairchild and if you sum these 92 companies valuations you get $2.1 trillion. And the barrier for whether it's an offshoot of Fairchild is pretty tenuous. For example, they count Apple in the total because Steve Jobs had conversations with Robert Noyce (co-founder of Fairchild) when they were starting. Maybe it's just me but this seems like far reaching hyperbole.

coryl 12y ago
Just imagine the networth of the guy who invented the wheel
defen 12y ago
> they count Apple in the total because Steve Jobs had conversations with Robert Noyce (co-founder of Fairchild) when they were starting. The initial $250,000 investment in Apple came from Mike Markkula, who made his money from Fairchild options.
aswanson 12y ago
Maybe it's just me but this seems like far reaching hyperbole. It's not you, it's typical lowbrow techcrunch idiocy. What amazes me is not the stupidity of this blog, but the fact that there are enough dumb people interested in tech to support sites like this. I've never clicked on a TC link here based on HN commentary alone. But somehow, a talentless, unaccomplished hack like Arrington was able to take this idiocy to a multi mm cashout. I dont get it.

finkin1 12y ago

The original and current title are definitely misleading. These quotes from the article clear it up: "Our team at Endeavor Insight recently worked to quantify the impact of Fairchild Semiconductor and its co-founders. We identified over 130 Bay Area tech companies that were trading on the NASDAQ or the New York Stock Exchange. Our analysis indicates that about 70 percent of these firms can be traced directly back to the founders and employees of Fairchild. The total impact of these businesses is staggering. The 92 public companies that can be traced back to Fairchild are now worth about $2.1 trillion, which is more than the annual GDP of Canada, India, or Spain. These companies also employ over 800,000 people."

judk 12y ago
Nonsensical comparison between value ($) and GDP ($/yr): check.
judk 12y ago
Why did you submit an article you know to be bogus?

jason_slack 12y ago

My Wife's Grandmother worked at Fairchild for many years in her 20's-30's. She worked on a "computer" all day. When she left she never touched a computer again. Never a smart phone or ipad. She passed April 2014. She kept scraps from spools of gold wire that was used as solder. She twisted it all up and gave them to family.

teawithcarl 12y ago

Fairchild and Honeywell once considered a merger. New name of the company ... "Fairwell, Honeychild".

robotresearcher 12y ago

Several companies listed at the link below have a value of >$1 trillion current USD. They are roughly: shipping/trading companies in European colonial times, oil companies and most recently, American tech companies. Fairchild was great, but ultra-big business has been around a while. https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/photos/most-valuable-companies-ever-adjusted-for-inflation-1351801906-slideshow/most-valuable-companies-in-history-adjusted-for-inflation-photo--1113431046.html https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/photos/most-valuable-companies-...

dang 12y ago

This post was killed by user flags.