SANYO
Published March 23, 2009 | 
A commercial from 1988 for SANYO
Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd. (三洋電機株式会社 ,San’yō Denki Kabushiki-gaisha?) is a major Japanese electronics company and member of the Fortune 500 whose headquarters is located in Moriguchi, Osaka prefecture, Japan. Sanyo targets the middle of the market and has over 324 offices and plants worldwide[citation needed], together employing more than 11,000 employees.
On November 2, 2008, Sanyo and Panasonic announced that they have agreed on the main points of a proposed buyout that would make Sanyo a subsidiary of Panasonic.
HistorySanyo was founded when Toshio Iue (井植 歳男 Iue Toshio, 1902-1969), the brother-in-law of Konosuke Matsushita and also a former Matsushita employee, was lent an unused Matsushita plant in 1947 and used it to make bicycle generator lamps. Sanyo was incorporated in 1950 and in 1952 it made Japan’s first plastic radio and in 1954 Japan’s first pulsator-type washing machine. The company’s name means three oceans in Japanese, referring to the founder’s ambition to sell their products worldwide, across the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans.
Technologically Sanyo has had good ties with Sony, supporting the Betamax video format from invention until the mid 1980s (the best selling video recorder in the UK in 1983 was the Sanyo VTC5000), and later being an early adopter of the highly successful Video8 camcorder format. More recently, though, Sanyo decided against supporting Sony’s format, the Blu-ray Disc, and instead gave its backing to Toshiba’s HD DVD. This was ultimately unsuccessful, however, as Sony’s Blu-ray triumphed.
In North America, Sanyo manufactures CDMA cellular phones exclusively for Sprint-Nextel corporation’s Sprint PCS brand in the United States, and for Bell Mobility in Canada. For three consecutive years, Sanyo received the J.D. Power and Associates award for having the highest overall satisfaction out of the eight most popular mobile phone manufacturers. However in 2005 Sanyo tied with LG for this position.
The 2004 Chūetsu earthquake severely struck Sanyo’s semiconductor plant and as a result Sanyo recorded a huge financial loss for that year. The 2005 fiscal year financial results saw a 205 billion yen net income loss. The same year the company announced a restructuring plan called the Sanyo Evolution Project, launching a new corporate vision to make the corporation into an environmental company, plowing investment into strong products like rechargeable batteries, solar photovoltaics, air conditioning, hybrid car batteries in a joint venture with Honda Motor Co. Ltd. (two firms would develop a nickel hydrogen battery) and key consumer electronics such as the Xacti camera, projectors and mobile phones.
Sanyo posted signs of recovery after the announcement of positive operating income of 2.6 billion yen. Sanyo remains the world number one producer of rechargeable batteries. Recent product innovations in this area include the Eneloop Low self-discharge NiMH battery, a “hybrid” rechargeable NiMH (Nickel-metal hydride battery) which, unlike typical NiMH cells, can be used from-the-package without an initial recharge cycle and retain a charge significantly longer than batteries using standard NiMH battery design. The Eneloop line competes against similar products such as Rayovac’s “Hybrid Rechargeable” line.
Tomoyo Nonaka, a former NHK anchorwoman,who was appointed Chairman of the company has stepped down. The President, Toshimasa Iue has also stepped down in April this year and Seiichiro Sano has been appointed to head the company effective from April 2007.
In January 2006 Sanyo received a massive capital injection from Goldman Sachs, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and Daiwa Securities which resulted in five members of the banks represented joining the nine-person Board of Directors.
On 24 November 2006, Sanyo announced heavy losses and job cuts.
Fisher Electronics which was purchased by Sanyo from Fisher Radio Corporation in 1975, is a Sanyo US subsidiary.
In October 2007, Sanyo canceled what may have been a possible 110 billion yen ($942 million) semiconductor sale, stating that after exploring its other options, it had decided to keep the business and develop it as part of its portfolio.
Info taken from Wikipedia
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