SANYO Electric Co., Ltd. (三洋電機株式会社, San'yō Denki Kabushiki-gaisha?) (TYO: 6764, NASDAQ: SANYY) is a major 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 and a formal announcement of the acquisition was made on Sanyo's web site on December 19, 2008.Panasonic plans to make an offer in late July or early August and make Sanyo a subsidiary in September.
Corporate culture
Sanyo utilizes an extensive socialization process for new employees, so that they will be acclimatized to Sanyo's corporate culture. New employees take a five-month course during which they eat together and share company-provided sleeping accommodation. They learn everything from basic job requirements to company expectations for personal grooming and the appropriate way in which to address their coworkers and superiors.
History
Sanyo 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 CAMERAS
SANYO WEBCAMS
SANYO TVs
