[2] Its head office is in Auckland, New Zealand with wholly owned subsidiaries in the United Kingdom and France with joint venture operations in India and China.

The only source for these crystals was the NZPO (New Zealand Post Office), and delivery times were often measured in months, which was an ongoing problem for Robinson in his ability to supply his radios.

Warren Robinson realising there was an opportunity to compete with the NZPO sold Marlin Electronics to Autocrat Radio and went on to found Rakon Industries (RIL) a few years later (1967).

In 1972 Warren Robinson set up a second manufacturing plant in Singapore to supply the growing markets of Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines and Taiwan.

The new business unit specialised in other forms of wireless communications and allowed Rakon to become less dependent on the GPS market, and expanded Rakon's product range to include oven-controlled crystal oscillators (OCXO), voltage-controlled crystal oscillators (VCXO), the Pluto ASIC and a range of low performance commodity products.

[5] Between 2012 and 2014, Rakon suffered a drop in revenue and margins and made a series of losses, shedding up to 86% of its market capitalisation compared to five years prior.

In August 2005, the New Zealand Herald quoted Rakon Marketing Director, Darren Robinson, as saying that the company's technology went into "smart bombs and missiles" used by the US military.

"[10] In May 2006 the New Zealand Herald[11] ran a large expose around Rakon products being supplied to Rockwelll for incorporation in United States Armed Forces 'smart bombs'.

In June 2006, the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade cleared Rakon products for export, stating that they were unlikely to have been specifically designed for military use.

However, various peace activist groups have maintained calls for Rakon to be prohibited from supplying any products to companies involved in the manufacture of weapons or weapons-related systems.