Former Sony CEO Nobuyuki Idei Passes Away at 84 Years Old

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Min-young] Nobuyuki Idei, former president who elevated Sony, Japan's representative company, to a global corporation, passed away on the 2nd. He was 84 years old.

Sony announced on the 7th that former president Idei passed away on the 2nd due to illness, and that the funeral will be held later with only family and relatives attending.

Born in Tokyo in 1937, the late Idei graduated from Waseda University with a degree in economics and joined Sony in 1960. He held key positions such as head of the Audio Business Division and Home Video Business Division, which are core parts of Sony's business, and unusually for a humanities graduate, he was appointed president from 1995 to 2005.

During his tenure, he focused more on the entertainment business than hardware, expanding the PlayStation (PS) gaming console business. He also launched the VAIO PC brand and, in a joint venture with telecommunications equipment company Ericsson, established the mobile phone manufacturer Sony Ericsson.

Seeing the potential of the internet, he broke away from the existing business structure of TVs and audio, and restructured the business focusing on information technology (IT) business as the core.

However, during his tenure, he lost leadership in the portable music industry to Apple and was evaluated as having been outpaced by domestic competitors and Korean companies in the TV business. In 2005, taking responsibility for deteriorating profits, he retired and chose Howard Stringer, the first foreign executive, as his successor.

Kenichiro Yoshida, current Sony president who served as Idei’s chief secretary for two years starting in 1998, said, “Former president Idei made a great contribution to Sony’s growth into a global company,” and “His foresight in predicting the influence of the internet early and actively promoting Sony’s digitalization is still astonishing.”

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