Columbia Records is owned by Sony (Japan, NYSE: SONY), which acquired the brand on 5 January 1988.[1][2] Columbia Records was founded in 1887 in the United States and was independent until 1988.
Columbia Records is the oldest surviving record label in the world, founded in 1887, and introduced the long-playing vinyl album in 1948. Its artists have included Bob Dylan, Miles Davis, Beyoncé and Adele. Its name is a survival from the District of Columbia, where the company began selling phonograph cylinders, and it is unrelated to the film studio that shares the word.
Controlling ownership as of . Brands grouped under the entity that owns them; large groups are collapsed.
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Sony acquired CBS Records for about $2 billion, buying the oldest record label in the world along with it. It was the first of two purchases that turned a Japanese electronics manufacturer into a major American media owner, and it drew political alarm in the United States at the time.
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The parent company of Columbia Records is Sony, a publicly listed company headquartered in Japan.
Columbia Records originated in the United States in 1887, but it is owned today by Sony, which is headquartered in Japan. So Columbia Records is an American-origin brand under Japanese ownership.
Sony completed its acquisition of Columbia Records on 5 January 1988, after announcing the deal on 18 November 1987.
Columbia Records was an independent company from its founding in 1887 until Sony acquired it in 1988.
Yes. As of 8 September 2026, Columbia Records is still owned by Sony. The ownership record was last checked against primary sources on that date.
Last verified . Every ownership fact above is backed by one of these primary documents. Numbers in brackets in the text refer to this list.
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