Kyocera Corporation announced today that it has reached an agreement with SANYO Electric Co to take over Sanyo’s mobile phone business. The agreement was approved today and will go into effect April 1, 2008.

"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."

Kyocera says that it will continue to sell handsets branded with both Kyocera and Sanyo brands in Japan and abroad for the foreseeable future. Kyocera also says it will not fire any of the 2000 Sanyo employees. The transaction was paid for in cash by Kyocera in the amount of $375 million USD.

Via Kyocera.