Sony’s Norio Ohga, developer of Compact Disc, dies at 81

Former Sony chief Norio Ohga passed away Saturday at age 81. Ohga is credited with expanding Sony from electronics hardware to software and entertainment and developing the Compact Disc.

Ohga, was president of Sony for 13 years, starting in 1982, the year that Sony commercialized the CD. He died of multiple organ failure in Tokyo, Sony said.

It was also during Ohga’s administration that Sony acquired Columbia Pictures in 1989, the biggest purchase ever by a Japanese company at the time. He also played a part on creating the company’s PlayStation unit in the early 1990s, which became one of its biggest businesses.

“We are always chasing after things that other companies won’t touch,” Ohga said in a 1998 interview with The Associated Press. “That is a big secret to our success.”

A music lover and connoisseur, Ohga drew upon this fondness of melody and song to take the Japanese electronics firm Sony through technological barriers. This is what pushed the ex-Sony head to push through 74 minutes of sound storage in the Compact Disc — so that he could listen to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony without interruption.

“It is no exaggeration to attribute Sony’s evolution beyond audio and video products into music, movies and game, and subsequent transformation into a global entertainment leader to Ohga-san’s foresight and vision,” Sony Corp. chairman Howard Stringer expressed.

“By redefining Sony as a company encompassing both hardware and software, Ohga-san succeeded where other Japanese companies failed. It is no exaggeration to attribute Sony’s evolution beyond audio and video products into music, movies and games, and subsequent transformation into a global entertainment leader to Ohga-san’s foresight and vision,” Stringer said.