Sidney Harman, 92; audio entrepreneur bought Newsweek

Mr. Harman died Tuesday night of complications from leukemia, according to a family statement posted on The Daily Beast website. He learned of his illness about a month ago.

“He died in Washington, D.C., a city he loved and supported in so many ways, surrounded by his wife and children,’’ the family wrote.

Mr. Harman is the founder of Harman International Industries, based in Washington for years. A planned 2007 sale of the company for about $8 billion was scuttled during turmoil in the credit markets.

Now, the parent company of numerous electronics brands, such as Harman Kardon, JBL and Infinity, and GPS products is based in Stamford, Conn. Mr. Harman retired in 2008 but continued to serve as chairman emeritus.

In the Newsweek deal, Mr. Harman paid The Washington Post Co. $1 for the money-losing newsweekly, and the Post Co. agreed to cover up to $10 million of the magazine’s debt.

Three months later, Mr. Harman’s negotiations helped install veteran editor Tina Brown as Newsweek’s editor in chief to lead its merger with The Daily Beast. Harman said the merger provided an “ideal combination of established journalism authority and bright, bristling website savvy.’’

Mr. Harman was a philanthropist, arts patron, and familiar face in Washington’s social scene. He rarely missed the annual Kennedy Center Honors gala.

In 2007, Mr. Harman gave nearly $20 million to build a new home for Washington’s popular Shakespeare Theatre Company. The theater, with a modern glass façade and dark mahogany auditorium, is named in his honor as the Harman Center for the Arts.

He was active and physically fit into his 90s, friends said.

Mr. Harman was born in Montreal in 1918 and moved with his family to New York. He made his fortune in the 1950s as an audio pioneer.