Major electronics makers routinely cut portions of their business because of loss or a change in the company’s strategy to make profits. Sanyo is no exception to this rule.

InformationWeek reports that Sanyo and handset maker Kyocera have finally ended negotiations that began in October for the sale of Sanyo’s mobile phone group. Kyocera has agreed to purchase the Sanyo mobile phone operations for $375 million USD.

Typically, when a company like Sanyo sheds a division, it is due to poor performance in the marketplace or the lack of profitability. InformationWeek is reporting that Sanyo sold its mobile phone operations in part due to pressure from investors Goldman Sachs Group and Daiwa Securities on the Sanyo founding family.

The Sanyo handsets were popular among consumers. Analyst Neil Mawston from Strategy Analytics told InformationWeek that the sale of Sanyo’s handset business to Kyocera would give the Kyocera-Sanyo merged business 10% of the global CDMA handset market. Mawston says this puts Kyocera-Sanyo in the number four position in the global handset marketplace. The top three global cellular phone makers are LG, Motorola, and Samsung.

The transfer of Sanyo’s mobile phone operations to Kyocera is expected to be complete on April 1, 2008. Sanyo says it wants to concentrate on its core battery and solar panel products.

Sanyo was part of the massive battery recalls of 2007 when Mitsubishi was forced to recall 1.3 million cellular phone batteries manufactured by Sanyo.