Kyocera Acquires Sanyo’s Handset Biz for $468M

• Posted: Thursday, January 24, 2008
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• Author: pradhana
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• Filed under: Handsets, Wireless Services

Following months of speculation, telecom equipment giant Kyocera officially announced a definitive agreement to acquire Sanyo Electric's mobile phone operations for up to $468 million, effectively creating the world's sixth largest handset business.

Per terms of the deal, Kyocera acquires Sanyo assets relating to research, development, design, materials procurement, manufacture, sales and marketing of CDMA handsets and PHS handsets, PHS base stations and wireless communications systems along with a range of related technologies, intellectual property and patents.

According to Kyocera, the acquisition is forecasted to accelerate its worldwide annual global telecommunications equipment revenues to about $3.7 billion. The agreement, approved by both companies' boards of directors, is expected to become effective April 1, 2008 -- at that time, Kyocera will launch a new wholly-owned North American subsidiary, separate from its San Diego-based Kyocera Wireless division, to assume the operations of U.S.-based Sanyo business units.

"This transaction will yield great synergies and economies of scale in areas such as technology portfolios, R&D, procurement, design, marketing and sales,” said Makoto Kawamura, president of Kyocera Corporation, the group's global parent.

“Furthermore, the Kyocera and SANYO product portfolios are highly complementary, and will allow us to offer a broader lineup of handsets and data devices to all of our carrier customers.”

To ensure a smooth transition in the market, Kyocera plans to offer both Kyocera- and SANYO-branded products in Japan and abroad for the foreseeable future. Kyocera also plans to offer continued employment to all affected Snyo employees, totaling approximately 2,000 workers. [FierceWireless]

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