CEO of Singapore’s Creative Sim Wong Hoo, Who Took on Apple, Dies at 67

(Bloomberg) — Sim Wong Hoo, who founded Creative Technology Ltd. in Singapore before sparring with Apple Inc., has died. He was 67.

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Sim died peacefully on Jan. 4, the company said in a Singapore exchange filing Thursday. “This is a sad and sudden development,” interim CEO Song Siow Hui said in the statement. Song, who was president of the Creative Labs business unit, said the firm will continue to realize its late founder’s vision and strategy.

Creative, which Sim founded in 1981 and led since, rose to fame with its Sound Blaster cards that brought audio to more than 400 million personal computers.

In 1992, Creative became the first Singaporean company to list shares on the Nasdaq. By 2000, Sim was Singapore’s youngest billionaire. Creative won a $100 million settlement after suing Apple in 2006 for patent infringements over the iPod.

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But it couldn’t keep up with giants like Apple. Creative dominated the PC audio market until the 2000s, then lost ground to computers that were built with integrated sound cards.

Creative’s Singapore-listed stock has plunged from a high of S$64 ($48) in 2000 to less than S$2.