Telecompaper

The European Commission has approved Panasonic's tender offer for Sanyo Electric with conditions. The commission's investigation identified competition concerns in a number of battery markets where the merged entity would have a significant market share. These are the markets for primary cylindrical lithium batteries, portable rechargeable nickel-metal hydride batteries and rechargeable coin-shape batteries based on lithium. The latter are used principally as back-up power for real time clocks in mobile phones and digital cameras as well as in certain other applications such as watches, laptops and keyless entry systems for cars. The companies agreed to sell a production plant producing both cylindrical lithium and rechargeable coin-shape batteries. They also agreed to divest one of their portable nickel-metal hydride businesses to eliminate any increase in market share in this product market. In the consumer electronics market, the commission found that in many instances the increase in market share that would result from the proposed transaction was limited and that the merging parties were generally not viewed as each other's closest competitor. In addition, the merged entity would continue to face competitive pressure from a number of players in each of the markets at issue.