[6][7][8][9] TransPerfect's founders Elizabeth Elting and Phil Shawe met in a New York University (NYU) dormitory room and founded the company in 1992.

In 1999, TransPerfect established a technology division, launching Translations.com with several million dollars in outside investment to meet the demand for software and website translations.

While TransPerfect used the Wordfast product under license,[12] it remained a wholly separate entity that is operated by the software’s founder Yves Champollion.

[27] The acquisition allowed TransPerfect to provide translation and interpretation services for both the public and private sectors throughout the Nordic region, a place they previously had limited access.

[28] The acquisition puts the companies in a better position to compete against the larger players in the VDR market, which businesses use to securely send and store information for complex financial transactions.

In October 2022, TransPerfect closed a deal to buy Paris based Hiventy Group, which specializes in technical audiovisual services including post-production, localization, distribution, and film restoration.

[35] In August 2015, The Chancellor of the Delaware Chancery Court, Andre Bouchard, decided to have a third-party sell the shares of the company in a public auction.

"[39] The argument against the Chancellor has been the misapplication of Delaware General Corporation Law,[40] clause 226 that authorizes the sale of a company when it faces financial default and other catastrophic issues.

[47] In March 2017, Shirley Shawe announced that she would attempt to break the manufactured corporate deadlock to end the legal case and stop the court imposed sale,[48] and laid out a plan to vote her single share with Elting's 50%, giving Elting control to appoint five board members with staggered terms, making it mathematically improbable for deadlock to ensue.

[59] With more than two years of litigation and legal questions over whether a court can order the auction of a successful private company that is not in distress or bankruptcy,[60] the court appointed custodian, Robert Pincus, a partner at Skadden Arps, announced in a 20 November 2017 email to the employees of the company, that Philip Shawe was the successful bidder in the public auction, and that he was in final talks to bring this matter to an end.

TransPerfect claimed the contempt finding violated rights protected by the First and Fourteenth amendments, arguing the company should have been permitted to proceed with its Nevada case and not allowing it to do so could serve as a warning to other corporate litigants.

[62] Also, in November 2022, the company filed a securities fraud lawsuit against the former court appointed custodian Pincus and financial advisor Credit Suisse in the Federal District of Delaware.

[69] The Chancellor agreed and mandated that the invoices must remain hidden, but lawyers for Shawe and TransPerfect could view limited details and then, within a certain time frame, submit disputes to items it takes issue with.

[70][71] Included in this case has been a campaign waged by a group that calls itself Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware[72] to lobby the legislature to change the chancery rules regarding the forced sale of a private, well performing company.

[77] There have been charges of unethical actions by Elting's law firm Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel,[78] which was sanctioned by the Chancery Court for "repeatedly instruct[ing] a witness not to answer questions.

[81] Shawe ran a series of TV ads highlighting the varying sets of comments made by Kaufman and the video was posted to YouTube.