Sunday, November 02, 2008

Panasonic buying Sanyo?

Here's a report that Panasonic is in talks to buy Sanyo.

If a deal is reached to buy all their holdings, Panasonic, already the world's largest plasma TV maker, could become Japan's top electronics firm by sales.

Panasonic and Sanyo combined are expected to post 11.22 trillion yen ($114 billion) in revenue, according to their forecasts for the year ending March 2009, surpassing projected 10.9 trillion yen at Hitachi, the country's current sales leader.

The motivation might be to gain control of Sanyo's battery expertise. They are #1 in lithium ion batteries, and rechargeable batteries are, for obvious reasons, a fast-growing market. They are also among the leaders in solar cells.

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