Diminished Giants

OSAKA (Nikkei)--Panasonic Corp. (6752) spent a huge sum to buy Sanyo Electric Co. and get its hands on the firm's lithium ion battery and solar cell operations, but the deal has not turned out as hoped.

OSAKA (Nikkei)--Sanyo Electric Co. will effectively cease to exist under a reorganization by parent Panasonic Corp. (6752), The Nikkei learned Friday.

TOKYO (Nikkei)--Sony Corp. (6758) plans to appoint Osamu Nagayama, chief executive officer of Chugai Pharmaceutical Co. (4519), as the new chairman of the board of directors, its top management oversight post.

TOKYO (Nikkei)--Strike while the iron is hot, so the saying goes, and for Japan's electronics giants struggling to make themselves profitable again, the iron is unlikely to stay hot for long.

TOKYO (Nikkei)--A shakeup of the top management at Sharp Corp. (6753) was engineered by Mikio Katayama, chairman of the embattled electronics company, amid growing discontent with President Takashi Okuda's leadership.