Sanyo

Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd. was a Japanese electronics manufacturer based in Osaka that existed independently from 1949 to 2009. It was founded by Toshio Iue, the brother-in-law of Konosuke Matsushita, the founder of the company now known as Panasonic; Iue was lent an unused Matsushita plant in 1947 and used it to make bicycle generator lamps. Sanyo made Japan's first plastic radio in 1952 and its first pulsator-type washing machine in 1954, and became best known for affordable consumer electronics and as a major producer of batteries, solar energy products and industrial air systems. It developed the first hybrid solar cell in 1992 and held 41 percent of the global lithium-ion battery market in 2002. Heavy losses from its semiconductor investments led to its acquisition by Panasonic in 2009, and its operations were fully consolidated into Panasonic by 2011.