[tonyvdb]

This was brought to my attention in another thread by member "Klawd" I thought this deserved a dedicated topic for sure.

Panasonic has been given the go ahead to Buy Sanyo for 6.4 Billion. Panasonic will then have 70% controlling stake in Sanyo. Sanyo and Panasonic have been at the forefront in projector sales over the last few years both putting out fantastic Projectors for the money.
See here and here for more details.

What do you think this will do for particularly the projector industry?

 

[Instal]

I don't know of any instance where less competition has meant a benefit to the consumer. You can bet that Panasonic wanted Sanyo out of the picture (so to speak) because it was always Sanyo that was the largest thorn in their side for the best value for money PJ. With Sanyo gone Panasonics market share will skyrocket, particularly with the incredible 4000 just released. The only good news is that Panasonic has set their own benchmark with the 4000. It will be hard for them to bring anything to market that offers less for more. The other manufacturers will have to really pull their socks up to compete with Panny or they will have to get out of the PJ market and that would hurt us even more.

 

[Instal]

I really thought this thread would goonder:. Doesn't anyone have any opinions on this?

 

[akan101]

Well in my opinion less competition means higher prices.

 

[lcaillo]

I guess people either don't know enough about the matter to comment, or do not see it as a problem. Personally, my guess is that the reason for buying Sanyo is more to get the IC manufacturing capability, not to eliminate a projector maker. I'd like to see some market share numbers on the projectors, however, before giving much of an opinion about that. It seems to me that there are lots of players there.

 

[mechman]

There still is a lot of pj manufacturers. :dontknow: I've never bought nor have I considered buying either a Panasonic or a Sanyo. I have a Mitsubishi and a BenQ. And there's still Infocus, Marantz, Optoma, etc. To me, it's kind of a 'no big deal'. :scratch:

 

[Instal]

I guess people either don't know enough about the matter to comment, or do not see it as a problem. Personally, my guess is that the reason for buying Sanyo is more to get the IC manufacturing capability, not to eliminate a projector maker. I'd like to see some market share numbers on the projectors, however, before giving much of an opinion about that. It seems to me that there are lots of players there.

I agree there is much more to this decision than projectors. Aparently Panasonics main focus was on Sanyo's battery making capability but you can bet all aspects of both companys market share were scrutinized before making a decision of this magnitude.

 

[lcaillo]

The low end plasma market might be a part of it as well. Sanyo has sold lots of cheap PDPs through Walmart.