Amar Bose gives majority of company stock to alma mater MIT

Indian-American billionaire Amar Bose, founder of the iconic Bose Corporation, has given his alma mater MIT a majority of the stock of his audio equipment maker company, a gift that fulfills his ''long-held desire'' to support education at the prestigious institute.

Massachusetts-based Bose Corp will continue to remain a private and independent company and MIT cannot sell its Bose shares.

"Dr Amar Bose has given to MIT (where he also taught) the majority of the stock of Bose Corporation in the form of non-voting shares," the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said in a statement here.

In a letter to Bose Corporation employees, the company's founder paid tribute to his mentors at MIT -- Professors Y W Lee, Norbert Wiener and Jerome Wiesner.

He said the gift represents his long-held desire to support MIT education, and reaffirmed the company's mission to play for the long run.

"We will continue to remain true to the principles upon which our company was founded," Bose, 81, wrote to his employees.

MIT will receive annual cash dividends on those shares when dividends are paid by Bose Corporation. Those cash dividends will be used by the institute to "sustain and advance MIT's education and research mission."

Under the terms of the gift, MIT cannot sell its Bose shares and will not participate in the management or governance of the company.

"Bose Corporation will remain a private and independent company, and operate as it always has, with no change in strategy or leadership," the letter said.

Bose will remain the company's Chairman and Technical Director. Expressing gratitude for the gift, MIT President Susan Hockfield said on Friday, "Amar Bose gives us a great gift today, but he also serves as a superb example for MIT graduates who yearn to cut their own path. Dr Bose set the highest teaching standards, for which he is still admired and loved by his faculty colleagues and the many students he taught."

Noting Bose's generosity and humility, Hockfield said his "insatiable curiosity propelled remarkable research, both at MIT and within the company he founded. Dr Bose has always been more concerned about the next two decades than about the next two quarters."

Bose received his bachelor's degree, master's degree and PhD from MIT, all in electrical engineering. He was asked to join the faculty in 1956, and accepted with the intention of teaching for no more than two years.

He continued as a member of the MIT faculty until 2001, making important contributions to the Institute's teaching of undergraduate electrical engineering.

Hockfield said Bose has asked MIT not to shine "too bright a spotlight on him today. So to honour that wish, let us simply celebrate Dr Bose's profound belief in the transformative power of an MIT education."

Bose Corporation, founded in 1964, has remained privately owned since its inception, with a focus on long-term research.

The company is known for its high-end audio products, like the speaker/dock-combo for Apple's iPod, noise-cancelling headphones and its compact line of Bose Wave speakers.

In March this year, Forbes had estimated Bose's personal net worth to be one billion dollars.