In 1988 CBS Records, including the Columbia Records unit, was acquired by Sony, who re-christened the parent division Sony Music Entertainment in 1991. As Sony only had a temporary license on the CBS Records name, it then acquired the rights to the Columbia trademarks outside the U.S., Canada and Japan (Columbia Graphophone) from EMI, which generally had not been used by them since the early 1970s.
In 1988, CBS Records, including its Columbia unit, was purchased by Sony. In 1991, Sony renamed the parent division as Sony Music Entertainment. Due to Sony's temporary license on the CBS Records name, it later acquired the rights to the Columbia trademarks outside the U.S., Canada, and Japan (Columbia Graphophone) from EMI.