Sanyo confesses to Kyocera sale

DESPITE A pathetic attempt to deny it back in April 2007, Sanyo has finally confirmed that it will be selling off its mobile business to Kyocera as constantly predicted by the INQ.
Interesting the deal won't just cover its mobile phone business but also its radio system business which includes its Wimax base station capability.

Nobody is entirely sure what Kyocera is going to pay but figures around $600 million appear commonplace.
By combining their forces, the pair hope to become the seventh largest mobile handset manufacturer in the world. The signs aren't good. When BenQ merged with Siemens, their combined market share evaporated.

So far only Sony Ericsson has rebounded from a merger to take fourth place in the market at present. Yesterday it announced it had 9 per cent of worldwide handset shipment in Q3 2007 which puts it well ahead of LG.

Which is another problem. Both Kyocera (which acquired Qualcomm's original handset business) and Sanyo are pretty heavily into Cdmaone based handsets.
Sanyo's foray into GSM with the S750 for Orange was a nice phone but it didn't really get the company anywhere in Europe.

Talking of Sony Ericsson, the company quietly announced that outgoing Sony Ericsson president, Miles Flint, will be replaced by Dick Komiyama who was previously chairman of Sony Electronics USA. µ