Kyocera Close To Acquiring Sanyo Cell Biz

By Ed Oswald, BetaNews

September 14, 2007, 11:50 AM

Kyocera is apparently close to acquiring Sanyo's mobile phone unit, which would render it the world's seventh largest phone manufacturer.

Separately, Kyocera was the 10th largest and Sanyo the 11th largest in the world. The deal will also make Kyocera a bigger brand in the US, due to Sanyo's strong relationship with Sprint Nextel.

Sanyo has found it difficult to compete against bigger rivals such as Nokia and Motorola, and as sales in its home market have leveled off due to market maturity. These problems have caused the company to lose money, and made looking for a suitor necessary.

Kyocera is said to be looking to buy the division for 50 billion yen ($435 million). If Sanyo successfully unloads the cellular unit, it will continue a process started this year to turn the company around.

Goldman Sachs, a shareholder in the company, has been assisting Sanyo in refocusing its business on core areas where the company has traditionally done well, such as rechargable batteries.

Its stake in Sanyo Electric Credit Co. was sold to GE this year, and it has put its microchip unit on the block as well.

Neither company has yet confirmed to the media that the two sides were close to a deal.