Sony

Japanese electronics company that produced the Walkman, the first easily portable cassette player with headphones, in 1980. It diversified into entertainment by the purchase of CBS Records in 1988 and Columbia Pictures in 1989. Sony made the 3.5-in disk drives for the Apple Macintosh in 1984, and also manufactures microchips and games consoles, among many other products.

During the 1970s Sony developed the Betamax video-cassette format, which technicians rated as more advanced than the rival VHS system developed by the Matsushita Corporation, but the latter eventually triumphed in the marketplace. Sony's late former senior executive, Akio Morita, was co-author of A Japan That Can Say No (1989) and sequels.

In 2006 sales were $64 billion, and there were about 150,000 employees.