Japan's Panasonic Corporation and Sanyo Electric announced that they will set up a project team to start discussions for the capital and business alliance between the companies, following the resolutions of the respective companies' boards of directors on November 7, according to a press release by Panasonic. The alliance will be based on the premise of making Sanyo a Panasonic subsidiary. Subsequent progress of the discussions is slated for announcement at around the end of December 2008.

According to an EE Times report, the alliance between Panasonic and Sanyo is expected to focus on solar cells and rechargeable batteries instead of the two companies' traditional product lines. Through the alliance, Panasonic will be able to enter the solar cell business leveraging Sanyo's proprietary HIT (Heterojunction with Intrinsic Thin-layer) solar cell technology. It is also projected that Panasonic will combine the newly-acquired solar cell business with its own home-use PEFC (Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cell) cogeneration systems.

It is estimated that the takeover deal will cost Panasonic around US$8.8 billion, according to a Reuters report. By incorporating Sanyo as its subsidiary, Panasonic is expected to overtake Hitachi as the largest electronics maker in Japan.