Sanyo Nokia Deal Called Off

Sanyo Electric has given up potentially lucrative plans announced in February to tie up on mobile handsets with Finnish giant Nokia as the firms had failed to reach a compromise. “The plan of setting up a joint venture with Nokia in CDMA mobile handsets is over, as both sides saw difficulty making concessions in sharing patent rights and other company assets,” Sanyo Electric spokesman Akihiro Oiwa said Thursday. The plan was one pillar of Sanyo’s restructuring efforts.

“We’ll continue seeking possibility of other forms of business alliance with a possible partner not limited to Nokia,” the spokesman said. But the company said in a statement that Sanyo and Nokia “continue to value their long-standing relationship and will leverage this to meet customer and market expectations.” continue>>

[Consiering Sanyo’s well documented success with GPS in Japan it would seem likely there are other big fish in the sea.. hence the apparently difficult comprimise — Eds]