Bell Labs was AT&T's research arm, funded by the regulated telephone monopoly, and produced the transistor, the laser, information theory, and Unix. Investors and operators read it for what a monopoly's cash flow bought in basic research and how the lab converted that research into products. Gertner's history is the standard account and covers the managers and physicists who ran it from the 1920s to the 1980s.
How Bell Labs turned research into the transistor, the laser and information theory.
Recommended by: Mohnish Pabrai, Mark Zuckerberg and 2 others
Mohnish Pabrairecommends 1 book here
Mark Zuckerbergrecommends 1 book here
Patrick Collisonrecommends 1 book here
Ron Conwayrecommends 1 book here