Creative Technology CEO and person behind Sound Blaster sound cards passed away

The CEO of the Singaporean company Creative Technology has passed away. Sim Wong Hoo was the founder of the company, best known in the 1990s for the Sound Blaster sound cards. He turned 67 years old.

The current board of directors of Creative Technology writes “with great sadness” to announce that Sim Wong Hoo passed away peacefully on January 4th. The board also expresses deep gratitude for the “immense contributions” Sim made to the company during his time as chairman and CEO. On the Creative Technology website stands that he will be greatly missed and that as a visionary, inventor and entrepreneur he “gave voice to the PC.”

The company’s current interim CEO, Song Siow Hui, has this to say about Sim. “I have known and worked with Mr. Sim for over 30 years. This is a sad and sudden development and we feel a great loss, especially as Mr. Sim and I recently had extensive discussions about the future of the company. Mr. Sim had an innovative vision. Even the night before he had a long discussion with the engineering team and a meeting with the online sales team was scheduled for the following day.”

Sim founded the company in 1981 and has served as chairman and CEO ever since. The company, known in the United States as Creative Labs, introduced, among other things, the Creative Music System in 1987 and the Sound Blaster sound cards in 1989. These sound cards were very successful at the time, which was partly the reason for the bankruptcy of competitor Ad Lib in 1992. Later, separate sound cards became less popular with the arrival of integrated audio chips and the company then also focused more on other products, such as the Super X-Fi technology. Creative Technology is also known for its patent battle against Apple, which focused on the iPod. In 2006, a $100 million settlement was reached in that case.