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Talks between Panasonic and Sanyo initiated last month regarding an acquisition have come to a boil and a price of $9 billion ($1.47 per share) has been set. We might not see many Panasonic handsets this side of the pond, they’re big in Japan, having hit the 100 million sales mark earlier this year. Sanyo’s are a little more popular here, with a few rugged flips popping up recently, but still far from a big name in mobile. Rough economic waters are making acquisitions viable and necessary courses for many companies, including two recently gobbled up by RIM, for example. As much as Panasonic has to gain from Sanyo’s foothold in the North American mobile market, the biggest gains will be in renewable energy.
“The synergies are there in the long run,” [Kazumasa Kubota, analyst with Okasan Securities Co.] said. “The solar business is a definite positive for Panasonic, and it can also hope to gain all the patents Sanyo has in rechargeable batteries.” … “Given the rapidly changing environment, we came to the conclusion to sell our stake for the benefit of all Sanyo stake holders,” Goldman Sachs spokeswoman Hiroko Matsumoto said.
[via AP]
About The Author
Simon Sage
Simon Sage’s education largely surrounded writing, technology and online community, leading him to begin his blogging career at www.BlackBerryCool.com and to quickly discover a vibrant and active community surrounding BlackBerry and mobile technology. In exploring RIM’s platform, he has learned what enterprises are looking for in mobility as well as what makes the innocuous BlackBerry so appealing to them. Recently Simon’s been covering RIM’s gradual move into an already-crowded consumer market, and the impact of burgeoning challengers, such as the iPhone, as well as long-time leaders, like Nokia, on BlackBerry’s advancement. With plenty of content under his belt, Simon will be branching off a bit to see what other smartphone manufacturers are working on while still using BlackBerry as a barometer. At IntoMobile, you can count on his posts being even-handed, well-informed and thought-out.
