It's the last year on the Impact 50 List for Texas Instruments.
In late April, the company sold its Sensors & Controls unit, based in Attleboro, to Bain Capital, a private investment firm in Boston. The $3-billion sale marks the departure from the region for the semiconductor pioneer headquartered in Dallas.
General Plate Co. of Attleboro was established in 1916 to offer gold-plating services to local jewelry companies and merged with Texas Instruments in 1959. Over the decades, it developed and manufactured sensing devices that helped fuel the electronics revolution of the late 20th century.
Now it makes sensor and control equipment for a variety of commercial applications, ranging from gauges for the automotive and appliance industries to measuring electrical outputs and fluid pressure. It recently developed a sensor that detects a passenger's weight in air-bag deployment systems in vehicles.
At one time, Texas Instruments employed nearly 4,000 people in 23 buildings on an Attleboro campus owned by the company. At the time of the sale, there were about 1,000 employees in two leased buildings.
The new company owned by Bain has been named Sensata Technologies Inc. and expects to keep its current employees. They number about 3,750 worldwide, at plants in seven foreign countries as well as the Attleboro headquarters, said Thomas Wroe Jr., the former Sensors & Controls president. He had been named president and chief excutive officer of Sensata.
Local employment is expected to increase slightly in the coming months. Sensata will add workers to help with additional corporate responsibilities, such as legal and financial matters, now that it is a standalone business, said Wroe.
Texas Instruments leaves Southern New England after a year that saw a 6.5 percent gain in revenues to $13.3 billion in 2005, up from $12.5 billion in 2004. Net income was up 25 percent, to $2.3 billion, from $1.8 billion in 2004.
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