Sony (NYSE: SONY) is a publicly listed company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan that owns 8 consumer brands across 3 categories, and has 4 recorded transactions.[1][2]
Sony was founded in a bombed-out Tokyo department store in 1946 and became a consumer electronics giant before buying its way into Hollywood and music. Entertainment now produces more of its profit than electronics, which is a reversal of what the name still suggests to most people.
Read from Sony's latest annual filing[1]. Each line gives the sentence the filing uses, copied word for word.
The G&NS segment includes the production and sales of digital software and add-on content, the network services businesses and the manufacture and sales of home gaming products.
The Music segment includes the Recorded Music, Music Publishing and Visual Media & Platform businesses.
The Pictures segment includes the Motion Pictures, Television Productions and Media Networks businesses.
The ET&S segment includes the Imaging business, the Sound business, the Network Services business and the Displays business.
The I&SS segment includes the image sensors business.
(+) Increases in sales in the I&SS and Music segments
For example, in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2025, Sony acquired additional shares of KADOKAWA Corporation.
In the fiscal year ended March 31, 2026, Sony acquired shares of Bandai Namco Holdings Inc. ("Bandai Namco") and acquired an additional equity interest in Peanuts Holdings LLC ("Peanuts Holdings").
In January 1988, Sony Group Corporation acquired CBS Records Inc., the music business division of CBS Inc. in the U.S.
In November 1989, Sony Group Corporation acquired Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc. in the U.S.
In January 2013, Sony Group Corporation acquired all of the common shares of So-net through a tender offer and subsequent share exchange and, as a result of the acquisition, So-net became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation.
In June 2012, an investor group including Sony Corporation of America ("SCA") established DH Publishing, L.P. ("EMI") to own and manage EMI Music Publishing, which it then acquired.
In July 2018, Sony completed the acquisition of the Estate's equity interest in Nile, resulting in Sony owning approximately 40% of the equity interest in EMI.
In November 2018, Sony completed the acquisition of the remaining approximately 60% equity interest in EMI, resulting in EMI becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony.
In July 2022, Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC acquired Bungie, an independent videogame developer in the United States.
(+) Recording of remeasurement gain from the acquisition of additional equity interest in Peanuts Holdings: 34.7 billion yen (Music segment)
Headline figures from Sony's annual reports filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, in JPY as reported, fiscal years ending 2016–2021.
| Fiscal year ended | Revenue | Operating income | Operating margin | Net income | Total assets | Long-term debt | Filing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ¥8999.4bn | ¥971.9bn | 10.8% | ¥1171.8bn | ¥26354.8bn | ¥1053.6bn | 20-F | |
| ¥8259.9bn | ¥845.5bn | 10.2% | ¥582.2bn | ¥23039.3bn | — | 20-F | |
| ¥8665.7bn | ¥894.2bn | 10.3% | ¥916.3bn | ¥20981.6bn | — | 20-F | |
| ¥8544bn | ¥734.9bn | 8.6% | ¥490.8bn | ¥19065.5bn | — | 20-F | |
| ¥7603.3bn | ¥288.7bn | 3.8% | ¥73.3bn | ¥17660.6bn | — | 20-F | |
| — | ¥294.2bn | — | ¥147.8bn | ¥16673.4bn | — | 20-F |
Source: SEC XBRL company facts. A dash means the company did not report that line in a form we could read. Figures for a year can be restated in a later filing; the latest filing's number is shown.
Controlling ownership as of . Brands grouped under the entity that owns them; large groups are collapsed.
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Sony acquired Crunchyroll from AT&T for $1.175 billion and merged its own Funimation service into it. Crunchyroll had begun as an unlicensed anime site run by university students; simultaneous licensed release is what turned anime into a mainstream global business.
Sony bought out Bertelsmann's half of Sony BMG for about $1.2 billion, ending a joint venture formed in 2004 and taking full ownership of RCA Records among others. Bertelsmann kept the music publishing catalogue, which it rebuilt into BMG.
Sony acquired Columbia Pictures Entertainment for about $3.4 billion in cash, roughly $4.9 billion including assumed debt. Japanese ownership of a Hollywood studio was politically contentious, and Sony wrote down billions on the business a few years later before it eventually became one of its most profitable divisions.
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.
The documents behind the figures on this page, as listed in the SEC's EDGAR index. Each links to the filing itself.
| Filed | Form | What it declares |
|---|---|---|
| 6-K | Report of a foreign private issuer | |
| 6-K | Report of a foreign private issuer | |
| 6-K | Report of a foreign private issuer | |
| 6-K | Report of a foreign private issuer | |
| 6-K | Report of a foreign private issuer | |
| 6-K | Report of a foreign private issuer | |
| 6-K | Report of a foreign private issuer | |
| 6-K | Report of a foreign private issuer |
Sony owns 8 consumer brands tracked here, including Sony Music, Columbia Records, Columbia Pictures, PlayStation, Crunchyroll and Sony Pictures.
Yes. Sony is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan and was founded in 1946.
Sony is a publicly listed company owned by its shareholders; it trades as SONY on the NYSE.
The most recent completed acquisition recorded here is Crunchyroll on 9 August 2021.
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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