Norio Ohga | Ex-Sony president, 81

Norio Ohga, 81, the former Sony president and chairman credited with expanding the company from electronics hardware to software and entertainment and developing the compact disc, died Saturday in Tokyo.

Mr. Ohga led Sony from 1982 to 1995. Some decisions made during his presidency, such as the $3.4 billion purchase of Columbia Pictures, were criticized as unwise and costly at the time. But Mr. Ohga's focus on music, films, and video games as a way to enrich the electronics business helped propel Sony's success.

The flamboyant music connoisseur steered his work through his love of music. A former opera singer, Mr. Ohga insisted that the CD be designed at 12 centimeters (4.8 inches) in diameter - or 75 minutes worth of music - to store Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in its entirety. Sony sold the world's first CD in 1982, and CDs overtook LP record sales in Japan five years later. - AP