The European Commission announced on September 29 that it has conditionally given green light to Panasonic's takeover offer for Sanyo, Dow Jones reported on September 29. The approval was given under one condition that Panasonic and Sanyo would have to sell some of their battery plants worldwide, including a production plant in Europe, where the combined market share of these two companies would be too high after the takeover. According to the agreement signed by these two Japanese companies on December 19, 2008, Panasonic would buy a 70.5% stake in Sanyo for approximately 800 billion Yen (US$8.9 billion; US$1 = 90.0 Yen) and would give Panasonic access to Sanyo's solar-cell technology so as to team up in the production of re-chargeable batteries for use in mobile phones and notebook PCs.

Asides from the European Commission's approval, Panasonic's takeover plan was granted by Japan's Fair Trade Commission in early September 2009 but is still awaiting approval from related authorities in the United States and China, the Associated Press News reported on September 30.