born Jan. 26, 1921, Nagoya, Japan
died Oct. 3, 1999, Tokyo
Japanese entrepreneur, cofounder of Sony Corp .
The son of an old sake-brewing family, Morita was trained as a physicist. In 1946 he and Ibuka Masaru cofounded the Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corp., which changed its name to Sony Corp. in 1958. Primarily responsible for finances and marketing, Morita adopted U.S. advertising techniques and established Sony's first U.S. plant in 1972. He became chief executive officer in 1971 and chairman of the board in 1976, in which post he served until 1994. Under his direction Sony became a world-renowned manufacturer of consumer electronics.