As the consolidation of the Asian electronics market accelerates, buyers sometimes win, and they sometimes lose. Panasonic Corp. on Thursday appeared to have sealed an agreement for Sanyo Electric Co. while Chinese computer group Lenovo Group Ltd. stepped away from an offer for a Brazilian rival.
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Panasonic won over Sanyo majority owners Goldman Sachs Group Inc.,
Daiwa Securities SMBC Principal Investment Co. Ltd. and Sumitomo Mitsui
Banking Corp. by increasing its per-share offer by ¥1, according to The Wall Street Journal. Panasonic will now pay the trio ¥131 per
share for their 70% stake in a deal that values the target at about ¥800
billion ($9 billion). The consortium has rejected two other
Panasonic approaches, and Goldman early this month said it was
considering buying out its partners to thwart any deal. However, in a
release, Panasonic denied any agreement had been reached.
Meanwhile, a Lenovo spokesman told Reuters that economic conditions had
ended talks about an acquisition of Brazil's largest PC maker, Positiva
Informatica SA. The Brazilian company recently admitted it had hired
UBS to vet offers while shareholders more than doubled the price of its
stock in a week. -
Andrew Bulkeley
See Panasonic releaseSee Wall Street Journal story
See Reuters story
