Starting April 1, 2008, Kyocera will take control of Sanyo’s mobile phone division for $374M or including debt is worth about $470M; which sure doesn’t sound a lot of money. The final selling price will be set by September, a Sanyo spokesman said.

If you really think about it, Kyocera is getting a great deal, especially when Goldman Sachs and other investors pumped in $2.8B to bail the troubled company out of a pit. This buyout will make Kyocera the world’s sixth-largest cellphone maker.

Whether Kyocera will keep their promise NOT to fire any of the 2000 employees is yet to be seen.

Not everything is all bad for Sanyo since its lithium-ion batteries are used in 4 of every 10 mobile phones in the world. They are indeed the world’s largest maker of rechargeable batteries – and yes, after buyout, they’re going back to focusing on making and selling batteries for phones.