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overview
holdings
landmarks
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landmarks
This chronology is indicative only. It covers -
Context is provided by the broader communications and
media timeline on this site.
antecedents
1889
Columbia Phonograph founded as dictaphone marketer, later
renamed Columbia Records
1920 Harry Cohn founds CBC Pictures
1924 CBC renamed Columbia Studios
1938 Columbia Records bought by CBS
beginnings
1946 Akio Morita founds Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo (TTK), electrical
repair and modification company
1950 TTK launches Japan's first tape recorder
1951 Columbia Pictures establishes Screen Gems television
program subsidiary
1953 Jack Stapp founds Tree Music publishing company
1954 TKK makes world's first transistor radio
1958 company name changed to Sony Corporation
the Betamax era
1960 Sony Corp of America established
1964 Stapp and Buddy Killen found Dial record label
1963 CBS subsidiary CBS Records
sets up first European branch, in the UK
1966 Sony starts French restaurant chain, licensing Maxim's
de Paris name
1968 CBS-Sony Records founded in Japan as a joint venture
1975 Sony launches Betamax VCR
1979 Walkman personal stereo launched
1979
Sony Life insurance arm established in Japan
1979 Sony Prudential Life Insurance founded as 50-50 joint
venture with Prudential Life Insurance in US
1980 Killen becomes sole owner of Tree Music
1982 CD hardware and software launched by Sony and Philips
1982 Tri-Star Pictures formed by CBS
television, HBO and Columbia Pictures
1982 Coca-Cola buys Columbia Pictures
1987
Columbia Pictures merges with Tri-Star Pictures under
the ownership of Coca-Cola
buying content
1988 Sony buys CBS Records' global business for $2bn
1989 Sony buys Columbia
Pictures and Tri-Star Pictures from Coca-Cola for US$3.4bn
1989 Killen sells Tree Music to Sony for US$30m
1989 Sony buys Loews
cinema chain
1992 Sony launches Mini Disc
1994 Sony Music buys ATV Music publishing library from
Michael Jackson for US$500m
1995 Nobuyuki Idei succeeds Morita as president of Sony
1997 Sony/Loews cinema chain merges with ailing Cineplex
Odeon
1999 Sony Assurance arm established
after the Crash
2001 Sony Bank established
2001 Loews Cineplex (inc Sony-Loews) acquired by Onex
and Oaktree Capital Management after financial crisis
2002 sells most of interest in Columbia House to Blackstone
Capital Partners
2002 sells Telemundo stake to NBC
2003 announces plan to merge record arm with Bertelsmann's
BMG record arm
2004 Sony consortium (inc Providence Equity Partners,
Texas Pacific Group and DLJ Merchant Banking Partners)
confirms in principle agreement to acquire Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Inc. (MGM) for US$5bn
2004 Sony Pictures takes 49% stake in Huasuo joint venture
with Hualong Film Digital Production (China Film Group
arm)
2006 European Court of First Instance annulls European
Commission's approval of 2004 merger between Sony Music
and BMG
2007 Sony/ATV Music Publishing buys Stoller & Leiber
catalogue for US$40m
2007 Viacom agrees to sell Famous Music unit to Sony/ATV
for US$370m
2007 US$2.7bn IPO of Sony Financial
2008 Sony Pictures pays £137.5m for Dutch company
2waytraffic (Who Wants to be a Millionaire? quiz
show)
2008 Sony agrees to buy 2008 Bertelsmann's
50% stake in music joint venture Sony BMG for US$900m,
with Sony BMG being renamed Sony Music Entertainment Inc
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