Texas Instruments
In 1930, J. Clarence Karcher and Eugene McDermott founded Geophysical Service, an early provider of seismic exploration services to the petroleum industry. In 1939, the company reorganized as Coronado Corp., an oil company with Geophysical Service Inc (GSI), now as a subsidiary. On December 6, 1941, McDermott along with three other GSI employees, J. Erik Jonsson, Cecil H. Green, and H.B. Peacock purchased GSI. During World War II, GSI expanded their services to include electronics for the U.S. Army, Signal Corps, and the U.S. Navy. In 1951, the company changed its name to Texas Instruments, with GSI becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of the new company.
Stafford, Texas
Texas Instruments (TI) operates a production facility in Stafford, where it manufactures wafers used in cell phones, high-definition televisions, and solar devices. The plant first opened in 1967. In 2009, TI, which had around 1,500 employees in its Stafford office during that year, was the largest employer in the city. In 2012, the company announced it is closing its Stafford plant because industry demand for larger, more efficient wafers increased and the company, in lieu of upgrading the Stafford plant to accommodate production of larger wafers, opted to shift production to newer plants. Of the 1,000 employees at the plant during that year, TI laid off 500 and sent 500 to another facility. Leonard Scarcella, the Mayor of Stafford, said that the closure would adversely affect Stafford.