Brief history of three institutions

UMG

Universal Music Group (UMG) is an American-based, French-owned multinational music corporation. It currently operates as a subsidiary of Paris-based media conglomerate Vivendi. UMG also owns Universal Music Publishing Group, which is the second largest music publishing company in the world. Universal Music Group's headquarters are located in Santa Monica, California

Universal Music was once the music company attached to film studio Universal Pictures. Its origins go back to the formation of the American branch of Decca Records in 1934.

With the 2004 acquisition of Universal Studios by General Electric and merging with GE's NBC, Universal Music Group was cast under separate management from the film studio. In February 2006, the label became 100% owned by French media conglomerate Vivendi SA when Vivendi purchased the last 20% from Matsushita, the group's sole owner from 1990 to 1995 and co-owner from 1995 to 2006. On June 25, 2007, Vivendi completed its €1.63 billion ($2.4 billion) purchase of BMG Music Publishing

WMG

Warner Music Group (WMG) also known as Warner Music is an American major global record company headquartered in New York City. The largest American-owned music conglomerate worldwide, it is one of the 'big three' recording companies (the third largest in the global music industry). The company operates some of the largest and most successful recording labels in the world, including its flagship labels Warner Bros. Records, Parlophone Records and Atlantic Records. WMG also owns Warner/Chappell Music, one of the world's largest music-publishing companies.

Formerly owned by Time Warner, the world's largest media conglomerate, the company was publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange until May 2011, when it announced its privatization and sale to Access Industries, which was completed in July 2011. WMG employs in excess of 4,000 people and has operations in more than 50 countries throughout the world.

Warner music group dates back as afar as 1811 when the new Chappell & co open for business in Bond street, London, selling sheet music and various musical instruments. With the time-lapse of a century, Warner bros. studios purchases rights to the vita phone allowing them to synchronize music and effects to silent film in 1925.

           

Sony

Founded in Tokyo in 1946, Sony was . Engineer Masaru Ibuka and physicist Akio Morita invested the equivalent of Yen 190,000 to start a company with just 20 employees.

On May 7, 1946, Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo K.K. (Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation), also known as Totsuko, was established in Tokyo. The new company had no machinery and little scientific equipment. 

In the crippled post-war Japanese economy Ibuka and Morita made their living repairing radios and manufacturing small numbers of voltmeters whilst looking to develop a future in designing and manufacturing new electronics.

Ibuka and Morita were global thinkers. They realised the need for a global brand which crossed cultural and language borders in order to expand the business in the US and later Europe.

Although the name of the company was not officially changed to Sony Corporation until 1958, the first Sony branded product was the TR-55 transistor radio which went on sale in 1955.

This was shortly followed by Sony’s world first "pocketable" transistor radio.

Today Sony UK employs around 4,500 people in functions including Manufacturing, Sales and Marketing. Sony’s UK Headquarters are located at Brooklands, near Weybridge, in Surrey