Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, November 26, 1994 TAG: 9411280039
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: TOKYO LENGTH: Medium
Morita led Japan's rise into a maker of the electronic machines the world listens to and watches. He co-founded Sony in a bombed-out storefront after World War II, going on to create the TVs, Walkmans and CD players sold around the world by a $36 billion-a-year conglomerate.
One of the world's best-known Japanese, Morita suffered a debilitating stroke and underwent brain surgery in November 1993. He has regained the ability to speak but is reported to be weak and restricted to a wheelchair. Sony said he submitted his resignation Nov. 16.
More than any other Japanese industrialist, Morita ``is a founder that's really identified with the company,'' said industry analyst Joseph Osha of Baring Securities.
Morita's resignation was the second blow in two weeks to Sony, whose stock plunged more than 5 percent last week after it said it was writing off $2.7 billion of the value of the Hollywood movie studios it bought with great fanfare in 1989.
Sony announced the resignation after stock markets closed in Tokyo and before they opened in Europe and New York.
Morita will stay on as honorary chairman, Sony said. It did not name a successor, but analysts said Sony president Norio Ohga was the most likely choice.
The tanned, snowy-haired Morita, who took up waterskiing in his 60s, also pioneered new behavior for corporate Japan. He pushed his engineers to take risks with new products and criticized lavishly paid American executives.
In the late 1980s, Morita called for many of the economic reforms now being carried out by Japan's government, but he reportedly declined an offer to become foreign minister in August 1993.
Under Morita's guidance, Sony was instrumental in changing Japan's image from a maker of slipshod products to a world leader in supplying high-quality automobiles and electronics.
During the headiest days of Japan's economic boom, Sony paid $3.4 billion to buy Columbia Pictures and Tristar Pictures, then invested billions more in them.
Coming after Sony's earlier purchase of CBS records, the move was praised as a potential for ``synergy'' that would sell TVs and video equipment by creating movies and programs viewers would be eager to see.
But when Sony said it was cutting the book value of the studios, it indirectly acknowledged that it had paid billions of dollars too much for them.
With Morita as president of Sony's U.S. subsidiary, Sony in 1970 became the first Japanese firm to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange and in 1972 became one of the first Japanese companies to build a U.S. factory. Sony's stock closed Friday at $51.75 a share, up $1.25 from Thursday.
Sony began selling its Walkman personal stereo cassette players in the 1980s, and they became its most famous success. In his autobiography, ``Made in Japan,'' Morita said he told engineers to make Walkmans despite the lack of market research.
``We don't believe in market research for a new product unknown to the public. So we never do any,'' he said.
by CNB