What Companies Does Sony Own?

Sony is a globally known Japanese industrial giant that was founded in 1946 in Tokyo, Japan, by Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuka. When they founded the company in the years just after World War II, the two business partners had little more than $500 in their pockets. Using this money and a handful of employees to set their sights on the American markets, they started off with two very innovative products.

Namely the tape recorder and the transistor radio…

Since then, the company has grown into one of the largest and most well-known electronic and entertainment companies in history.

Sony is divided up into four main operating segments – electronics, financial services, music entertainment, and finally, Sony Pictures Entertainment. As of September 2021, the Sony Group is valued at around $145 billion.

Over the years, the company has acquired many of its competitors and other small businesses in order to expand its services and products. So, let’s take an in-depth look at look at the biggest acquisitions that Sony has made over the years to find out…

What Companies Does Sony Own? 

Sony Financial

This is easily one of the biggest slices of the cake that makes up the Sony company. This company’s top operating segment is the games and network services division, which consists mainly of the very famous PlayStation brand. In March 2021, the company posted a total revenue of about US$8.27 billion, so it is easily the highest-performing segment in terms of its revenue.

Sony Mobile

After a 10-year joint venture with the Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson, Sony decided to go into the mobile phone market on its own. This led to the founding of Sony Mobile in 2011. At first, the company did not work too well against competitors like Apple and Samsung. Experiencing very limited success with its Xperia line of smartphones. 

But it didn’t end there…

After a few years of struggling and improvement, the company finally started turning a profit. In the fiscal year of 2020, it made a profit of around $250 million. And in late October of that same year, it reported a year-over-year increase of around 25% in terms of its sales revenue.

Sony Mobile posted an operating revenue of around 350.5 billion Japanese yen (around US$3.1 billion) in the fiscal year of 2021.

Columbia Pictures Entertainment

Founded by brothers Jack and Harry Cohn, and Joe Brandt in June of 1918, the Cohn-Brandt-Cohn Film Sales Corporation would eventually become Columbia. It remains one of the most successful film studios in history. Columbia, along with four others, makes up what is known as The Big Five Film Studios.

How did this happen?

The Company’s early success came mostly due to its association with legendary filmmaker Frank Capra. When it entered the television market in the ’50s, mergers and splits began. From Screen Gems to Warner Bros and even Coca-Cola, who bought the company in 1982 for $750 million dollars. 

Coca-Cola would hold on to it until 1989, when Sony bought it for $3.4 Billion.

What did this mean for Sony?

Well, Sony had instantly become a major player in the worldwide film industry. Initially, this deep dive did not seem a good idea. At first, things went a bit downhill, with reported losses of over $2 billion. 

After some time, though, things started looking up. This was mainly thanks to massive blockbuster hits like Men in Black, The Da Vinci Code, Spiderman, and the hugely successful James Bond series. The 25th film, No Time To Die, being released in 2021. This resulted in yearly profits of around $4 Billion. 

Officially, Columbia is a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment. The latter recorded a revenue of around $6.5 billion in March of 2021.  

CBS Record Group 

CBS Records is another piece of American entertainment history, making it an obvious choice for acquisition. It was initially known as the American Record Corporation, founded in 1929.

Created to manufacture and distribute recorded music, it also helped manage the rights and legal aspects of the medium. 

The company was bought by the Columbia Broadcasting System in 1938. They couldn’t use the name Columbia outside of the U.S., though, so they changed the name to CBS Records to go worldwide.

Leading up to Sony’s acquisition…

CBS Record Group would remain under the Columbia banner until 1988, when Sony made its successful $2 billion bid to acquire the company. At the time, CBS was the most successful music company in the business. After the buyout, CBS was renamed Sony Music Entertainment, and the Columbia brand was reintroduced to the world. 

Sony Music Entertainment is one of the biggest names in the business. Amongst the contracts in the catalog are those of Beyonce and Michael Jackson. The company has posted yearly revenues of well over $3.8 Billion. 

Gaikai 

Gaikai was founded in 2008 by Rui Pereira, David Perry, and Andrew Gault. The company develops video games mainly but also builds and maintains cloud-based gaming tech. It has been praised for various innovations in the field. 

Players can stream ad-imbedded video games at no cost. Moreover, players are not required to purchase ad-fee versions. And thanks to Gakai’s Shareplay, users can play games together in real-time from any location in the world. 

Where does Sony come in?

Gakai was purchased by Sony for $380 Million in 2012. Like most gaming takeovers, the main reason for the acquisition was to access Gakai’s talent pool and gain exclusive rights to many of its gaming titles for the PlayStation console. Along with this, the Gakai acquisition led to the creation of PlayStation’s Now Cloud gaming platform.  

Memnon Archiving Services 

Memnon is based in Belgium. The company mostly specializes in the digitization of sound and video material. According to the company’s website, they count amongst their biggest clients some of the greatest names in broadcasting, national libraries, universities, and business. They have their origins in an old mastering studio founded back in 1989 in Brussels. 

Since 2005, the company has been fully dedicated to archiving and the conversion and modernization of all things audio/visual. In the last ten years, it has undergone massive expansion to include the U.S., E.U., the Middle East, and South Africa. Memnon was integrated into the European branch of Sony in 2015. 

Zee Entertainment Enterprises 

Formerly known as Zee Telefilms, this company was started in 1991 and is headquartered in Mumbai. It is historic in having given its country its very first satellite TV channel in 1992. Since then, they have gone from strength to strength. 

In what way?

Their ventures have included a Nickelodeon-branded programming block in 1999, which was later changed to Cartoon Network. And a majority stake in ETC Networks. They also bought a 51% stake in Taj Television, which included much of the country’s sports broadcasting. 

The company now owns or is affiliated with a host of streaming services on platforms with well over 1.3 billion users. It was acquired by Sony in September 2021. 

eSATURNUS NV

Healthcare is certainly not what you might think of when you imagine Sony, but in 2016 they announced that they would be taking over another Belgian Company, this time in the medical realm. 

eSATURNUS NV specializes mostly in Video over IP solutions in the medical field. The acquisition has proven quite successful, with several healthcare innovations appearing thanks to the fusing of technology from both sides. 

From its flagship NUCLeUS software to 4K Surgical Monitors, and IP Cameras, the company has experienced success in all its endeavors. 

Somethin’ Else 

Next, on my rundown of What Companies Does Sony Own, Somethin’ Else is a content agency based in London and New York. The company was founded in 1991 and specializes mostly in strategy, production, and of course, content within the television, video, and audio world. It was founded by Jex Nelson, Chris Philips, and Sonita Alleyne. 

Starting off making a name in the broadcasting world…

Most notably, several programs for the BBC on stations like BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 1xtra, BBC Radio 2. and 6Music. Some of the programs include Garderner’s Question Time, The Kitchen Cabinet, and Kermode and Mayo’s Film Review, which has been broadcast live for 21 years.

Somethin’ Else is officially the BBC’s biggest multi-platform content supplier, with a weekly output of 35 shows. The company is also responsible for a bunch of TV shows on BBC4 and iPlayer. 

Before Sony, they had dealings with some world-famous names, including FIAT, NISSAN, Porsche, Chivas Regal, Rolls Royce, and even the British Phonographic Industry. After a number of stints with a few other divisions, Somethin’ Else was acquired outright by Sony in 2021. 

Altair Semiconductor 

As the name suggests, this company is a leader in the semiconductor industry. It is an Israeli-based entity founded eighteen years ago by Oded Melamed, Yigal Bitran, and Eran Eshed. The company employs nearly 200 people in its R&D development center in Hod Hasharon, with further offices in Japan, the U.S., China, France, India, and Finland. 

The primary product?

Its main focus is high-performance Long Term Evolution (LTE) chipsets. But they are also involved in the making of baseband processors, RF transceivers, and a range of reference hardware products. 

Sony announced that they would be acquiring the company in January 2016 for just over $212 million. In 2020, it was officially rebranded as Sony Semiconductor Israel. 

Mido Holdings

Officially, this company was bought by Sony Semiconductor Solutions in June 2019. It compromises mostly what is called virtualization technologies. This helps one to change the integral architect of massive networks without having to alter the physical structure. This proved to be massively useful in keeping the age-old system of industry giants up to date in a quickly modernizing world. 

Along with this vital task, virtualization technologies help users to control several servers and storage mediums at once. This can then be used to construct and maintain cloud computing systems. 

A savvy acquisition for Sony’s future…

The acquisition of this company allowed Sony to begin integration of this technology with their own Cloud Computing systems, and image sensor tech to make massive strides in the virtual creation industry. This will go far beyond VR- gaming, so one can only keep eyes and ears open to see what happens. 

Toshiba Image Sensor 

Sony made a successful 165 million bid for Toshiba’s Image Sensor business back in 2015. Just like the previous example, the company was officially acquired by Sony Semiconductor in order to further help them become a giant in manufacturing, especially in the mobile phone and tablet industry. 

And it worked…

After buying Toshiba’s Image Sensor tech, Sony was able to begin manufacturing not only CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) sensors often found in smartphones and CCTV cameras but also a range of other components that will allow them to draw profits from a wider range of markets. 

SoftKinetic 

SoftKinetic is another Belgian company that Sony made a successful bid for. It was founded in July 2007 by Eric Krzeslo and Thibaud Remacle. The company was bought outright by Sony in 2015.

SoftKinetic specializes mostly in the development and building of gesture recognition hardware and software. This tech is mostly used for real-time, three-dimensional range-imaging cameras, often used in the aviation industry. But it has transcended into consumer electronics, health & fitness, and digital entertainment. 

From humble beginnings…

The company started off with much more humble ambitions, but it soon grew to have many different applications. Gesture recondition software has now found its way into areas like digital signage, advergaming, interactive TV, and even physical therapy. 

Pixim 

Pixim was already seen as one of Silicone Valey’s most well-known manufacturers and developers of chipsets, mostly for security cameras. Sony decided to buy the company in 2012 so that they could make use of the image sensor technology provided by Pixim’s hardware. Furthermore, it has acquired many innovative minds in the form of engineers and designers.

Officially, the company now exists as a subsidiary of Sony Electronics. 

Want More on Successful Business Ownership?

If so, you may also want to find out, What Does PepsiCo Own?

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In terms of mobile and social media, also check out Who Owns Mint Mobile, Who Owns Twitter, Who Owns Snapchat, along with Who Owns Zelle, Who Owns Zillow, and, Who Owns Cash App?

Or, for car enthusiasts, find out Who Owns Subaru and Who Owns Volvo in 2023!

Ok, back to…

Final Thoughts

Sony has been around for a very long time. But in those many decades, its principles have remained the same.

The company looks to constantly innovate and reimagine the way it approaches business, design, and manufacturing. From the first Walkman to the PlayStation 1 to some of the most advanced motion-sensing technology in the world, it has shown no indication of slowing down. 

This list of Sony’s companies represents a small part of the Behemoth that is Sony. Are there any other big acquisitions that you would have listed here?

Let us know in the comments below!