Japanese electronics giant Sanyo has been in troubled waters for quite some time now so that the rumors that came up in the last days about the company taken over by Panasonic weren’t too surprising. But the speed of the transaction can surely be called unusual.

Japan’s biggest news daily The Nikkei is reporting today Panasonic President Fumio Ohtsubo and his Sanyo counterpart, Seiichiro Sano, have come to an agreement to let Panasonic acquire Sanyo and turn it into a subsidiary as early as next April, the beginning of the Japanese fiscal year.

The agreement marks the first M&A between major Japanese electronics manufacturers in Nippon’s history, resulting in the country’s biggest electronics company. Panasonic said the Sanyo brand will not be given up. The combined sales of both companies for this fiscal year are projected to reach $113 billion, surpassing Hitachi’s (the current leader’s) sales of $110 billion.

Via Nikkei [registration required, paid subscription]