Panasonic Corp. offers $9 billion for Sanyo Electric Co.

Panasonic Corp. has offered to pay 806.7 billion yen ($9 billion) to purchase Sanyo Electric Co. if the deal goes ahead, Panasonic will gain the lead in the global rechargeable battery market. The deal will be the largest consumer-electronics acquisition in Japan.

Panasonic’s offer of 131 yen a share for Sanyo is less than the market price, but is being considered “positively” by Goldman Sachs Group Inc., as well as two Japanese banks who own a 70.5 percent share in Sanyo.

If the acquisition goes ahead, then Panasonic will almost quadruple their share in the rechargeable-battery market. The deal will also give Panasonic access to Sanyo’s solar-cell technology, which is based on Osaka. Panasonic will then hope to speed up development of next-generation solar cells.

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