Sony Group

By sammsinger

  • Established as Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo

    On the 3rd floor of a department store badly damaged by firebombing in World War II, Masaru Ibuka established a small radio repair shop. On May 7th, 1964 Masaru Ibuka was joined by Akio Morita and established a company called Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo (Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation).

  • First consumer tape recorder

    In 1950, Sony created Japan's first tape recorder, the G-type. A year later, the H-type tape recorder became the first consumer tape recorder model.

  • Name changed to Sony

    In 1958, when looking for a romanized name to better market themselves, they settled on Sony.

  • Sony Corporation of America established

    Sony Corporation of America is the American counterpart of the Sony Group Corporation. It is headquartered in New York City, NY.

  • First Japanese company to sell stock to the US

    At a special board meeting on February 1st, 1961, the board decided to issue new stock. 2 million shares would be ADR stock issued in the United States.

  • Launch of first consumer-grade video tape recorder

    in 1965, Sony launched the world's first consumer transistor VTR CV-2000 at the affordable price of 198,000 yen.

  • CBS/Sony Records Inc. established

    In March 1968, CBS/Sony Records Inc. was born. It was the first foreign-Japanese joint venture to be set up in the wake of Japan's capital deregulation.

  • First Japanese company to be listed on Nasdaq

    Sony became the first Japanese company to be listed in the New York stock exchange.

  • Launch of the Walkman

    In 1979, Sony’s Walkman brand was introduced with the launch of the TPS-L2. It was the world’s first portable music player using the compact cassette format.

  • Launch of the CD

    After years of failing to create the CD Drive and CD together with Philips, Sony released the first commercial CD drive on October 1st, 1982.

  • Sony buys CBS Records Division

    Comprised of huge labels Colombia, Portrait, and Epic, Sony bought CBS Records for $2 billion.

  • Sony buys Colombia Pictures

    In the largest U.S. acquisition to date by a Japanese firm, Columbia Pictures Entertainment was acquired by Sony. Sony pledged to put the movie and TV studio in the hands of Sony’s U.S. subsidiary to keep it as independent as possible.

  • Establishment of Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc. (SIEI)

    Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) is established as a joint venture between Sony Corporation and Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc. It is responsible for the PlayStation® brand and family of products and services.

  • Launch of the PlayStation®

    After a failed partnership with Nintendo, the PlayStation® was launched. It launched about a year later in the US in September 1995.

  • Sony merges with ATV

    In 1995, Sony Music Publishing merged with Michael Jackson's ATV publishing to create Sony/ATV Music Publishing, which the two parties co-owned.