Audio Video News

Dr. Amar Bose will donate the majority of his company's shares to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he has been both student and teacher.

The 81-year-old founder of the Bose Corporation graduated with MIT's class of 1951, eventually taking bachelor's, master's, and Ph.D degrees. He joined the faculty in 1956 and taught electrical engineering until 2001. In a letter to his employees, Dr. Bose cited his debt to Professors Y.W. Lee, Norbert Wiener, and Jerome Wiesner.

MIT will not be able to sell the non-voting shares, a move intended to keep the company in private hands. But the school will reap dividends, which will fund both research and education missions.

The company continues to thrive as a maker of car audio, industrial products, Lifestyle surround and stereo systems, Wave radios, and noise-cancelling headphones and recently entered the TV field with the VideoWave system, which has integrated audio features. Confounding critics, Bose is also the nation's bestselling speaker brand. Though its manufacturing operations are in different places, it still employs 9000 people at its headquarters in Framingham, Massachusetts, where it was founded in 1964.

See MIT press release.