Sanyo admits flogging mobile business to Kyocera

FOUR MONTHS after we accurately predicted the purchase, Sanyo has finally admitted it has sold off its mobile phone business to Kyocera.

The transfer is expected to take place on April 1^st. There have been various estimates of the deal's worth but most estimates put it at around $374 million.

It isn't going to create any kind of giant killer because the combined market shares of Kyocera and Sanyo would have a worldwide market share of around 1.5 per cent.

Significantly, Kyocera bought the mobile handset manufacturing capability of Qualcomm and Sanyo's biggest prize is selling handsets to Sprint Nextel in the USA. So both are firmly Cdmaone based.

In its home market, Sanyo is also a significant supplier of PHS handsets and infrastructure equipment.

Sanyo did once manage to supply a GSM handset to France Telecom/Orange but if the combined unit really wants to become a world player then it desperately requires GSM technology expertise.

Kyocera has said it will continue to keep the two phone brands seperate for the forseeable future.

Of course Sanyo very famously tried to deny to the INQ that its mobile phone unit was going to be flogged off last and we announced that Kyocera was the winner four months ago. µ

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