Sony Group Corporation

Sony Group Corporation began as Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo, founded in Tokyo on 7 May 1946. According to Sony's own history, on the day of the founding ceremony it had twenty-odd staff and capital of 190,000 yen, with Tamon Maeda as president, Masaru Ibuka as senior managing director and Akio Morita as a director. Its annual report on Form 20-F records that it was renamed Sony Corporation in January 1958 and Sony Group Corporation in April 2021, to focus on its role as group headquarters. It is headquartered in Konan, Minato-ku, Tokyo; its representative corporate executive officer is Hiroki Totoki; and it had about 94,900 employees at the end of March 2026.

A company on the side that sets the formats

Line up the Sony-related entries on this site and many of them are about setting formats. Some became world standards; at least one gave way to a rival.

Of Betamax, Sony's history says the lessons about how to pursue a unified standard stayed with the company. The story of each format is left to its own entry.

PlayStation: the games business begun in 1993

According to the 20-F, Sony founded Sony Computer Entertainment in November 1993; it was renamed Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) in April 2016. SIE publishes the cumulative worldwide hardware sales (sell-in) below, each counted at a different date.

SIE puts PlayStation's monthly active users at 125 million (as of 30 June 2026, an estimate based on SIE research). Its peripherals include PlayStation VR.

Key events

• 7 May 1946: Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo founded.
• January 1958: Renamed Sony Corporation; listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange that December.
• March 1968: CBS/Sony Records founded as a joint venture with CBS of the US (wholly owned from January 1988).
• September 1970: Listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
• 1979: The Walkman.
• January 1988: Acquires CBS Records, the music business of CBS (later Sony Music Entertainment).
• November 1989: Acquires Columbia Pictures Entertainment (renamed Sony Pictures Entertainment in 1991).
• November 1993: Sony Computer Entertainment founded.
• July 2014: Sells its VAIO personal-computer business to Japan Industrial Partners; splits out the television business.
• April 2021: Renamed Sony Group Corporation; the merged electronics operating company takes the name Sony Corporation.
• July 2022: SIE acquires the US game developer Bungie; in September Sony Honda Mobility is founded as a joint venture with Honda.
• 1 October 2025: Partial spin-off of Sony Financial Group, which runs the financial services business.

Key figures

Fiscal year ended March 2026 (April 2025 to March 2026), IFRS, continuing operations, from the financial summary of 8 May 2026.

• Sales: ¥12,479.6 billion (+3.7% year on year) / operating income: ¥1,447.5 billion (+13.4%) / operating margin 11.6%
• Net income attributable to Sony Group's stockholders (continuing operations): ¥1,030.9 billion (-3.4%)
• Consolidated, including discontinued operations: a net loss attributable to stockholders of ¥326.9 billion, because on the spin-off ¥1,377.8 billion of the financial business's accumulated other comprehensive income was reclassified to profit or loss

Changes are calculated from the prior-year and current-year figures in the financial summary.

From electronics company to what?

The segment figures show the shift in weight directly. Entertainment, Technology & Services (ET&S), which per the 20-F covers interchangeable-lens cameras, headphones and televisions among other things, saw sales fall 6.2% and operating income 16.9%. In the 20-F's headcount table ET&S shrank from 38,700 people at the end of March 2024 to 33,100 at the end of March 2026. Imaging & Sensing Solutions, the image-sensor business, raised operating income by 36.8%, and Music by 25.1%. The largest segment by sales is Game & Network Services, the PlayStation business, which is roughly level with Music on operating income.

The renaming follows the same line. In 2021 the parent became Sony Group and electronics became one company beneath it. Sony let go of the VAIO PC business in 2014 and separated the financial business in 2025. The company that helped build the consumer-electronics era through media formats now earns its money from content (games, music and film) and from image sensors for smartphones and other products.

At the same time, the spin-off accounting meant that in the year to March 2026 Sony grew operating income from continuing operations by 13.4% yet reported a consolidated net loss. Sony explains that the reclassification moves amounts between items within equity and does not affect total equity, cash flows or profit from continuing operations. Even so, the impression changes a great deal depending on which figure a headline uses, so comparisons should check whether they mean continuing operations or the consolidated total.