[February 01, 2013]

Panasonic Announces Dissolution of Joint Venture of Motor Business

Panasonic (News - Alert) Corporation (NYSE:PC)(TOKYO:6752)("Panasonic") today announced that Minebea Co., Ltd. ("Minebea") and Panasonic reached an agreement today that Panasonic would promptly transfer all of its shares in their joint venture of Minebea Motor Manufacturing Corporation to Minebea and dissolve their alliance.

There shall be no effect on the consolidated financial outlook of Panasonic for fiscal year ending March 31, 2013.

For further detail, please see the attached.

Minebea Co., Ltd.
Panasonic Corporation

Dissolution of Joint Venture of Motor Business

Minebea Co., Ltd. ("Minebea") and Panasonic Corporation ("Panasonic") today reached an agreement that Panasonic would promptly transfer all of its shares (40 percent of the capital) in their joint venture of Minebea Motor Manufacturing Corporation ("Minebea Motor") to Minebea and dissolve their alliance.

Minebea Motor had been set up on April 1, 2004, integrating the fan motor, stepping motor, vibration motor, and DC brush motor business of Minebea and Panasonic, to develop a globally competitive business by leveraging the ultra-precision machining technology, mass production technology, and cost competitiveness of Minebea with the innovative product development strength of Panasonic. On April 1, 2010, businesses for small brushless motors, power brushless motors, and polygon mirror scanner motors had been transferred to Minebea Motor from Panasonic for further business development. However, the environment of the motor manufacturing business is changing recently, Minebea and Panasonic reached an agreement to dissolve the joint venture and to seek further business expansion for Minebea Motor to continue on as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Minebea, after reconsiderations for businesses.

Minebea, Minebea motor and Panasonic will maintain the further collaborative relationship through continuous products supply in future.

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