For those that like the Panasonic-Tesla story, this article lays out a bit of Panasonics strategy for growth.

TOKYO--Following several years of heavy losses and restructuring that cost thousands of jobs, Japanese electronics giant Panasonic Corp. now says it is ready to spend more on growth through acquisitions and alliances.

"We will aggressively look for mergers and acquisitions as well as investments in strategic partners," said Panasonic President Kazuhiro Tsuga at a news conference Friday.

Once a household name in consumer electronics world-wide, Panasonic has scaled back its flagship television business and stopped selling smartphones in recent years. Instead, it has been trying to become a different kind of company that earns a big chunk of its revenue from products and services for corporate and government clients. The Osaka-based company, for example, is supplying electric car batteries to Tesla Motors Inc. and building energy-efficient homes.

Mr. Tsuga said Panasonic is considering setting aside a "significant budget" for M&A purposes. "We have to make timely investments" or the company will miss opportunities to grow, he said.

In late March, Panasonic set a long-term goal of generating Yen10 trillion ($90 billion) in annual revenue by the year through March 2019, roughly a 30% increase from the last business year.

"If we just rely on organic growth (of existing businesses), we won't be able to reach that Yen10 trillion target," Mr. Tsuga said.

On Friday, Panasonic raised its profit forecasts for the current business year through March, even as it reported a 30% decline in net profit for its second quarter through September. The quarterly profit fell because the year-earlier figure had been padded by one-time gains from stock sales.

For the year through March, Panasonic now expects a net profit of Yen175 billion, higher than its previous forecast of Yen140 billion, on revenue of Yen7.75 trillion.

Upbeat earnings forecasts for the full year are based on a strong sales outlook for solar panels. Even though the market for panels is crowded with low-cost players in China and elsewhere, Mr. Tsuga said Panasonic's panels are competitive because of the company's cost-efficient factory in Malaysia.

Panasonic has already announced big investment plans. Earlier this month, Mr. Tsuga said the company would invest tens of billions of yen in Tesla's lithium-ion battery factory in the U.S. in what would be the first round of investments. In July, Tesla founder Elon Musk said he expected the Japanese partner to contribute 30%-40% of the factory's total cost, estimated at $5 billion.

To expand its energy-efficient housing business outside Japan, Panasonic is targeting Southeast Asia, trying to sell such homes to wealthy families there.

Still, despite improving forecasts, the company sees room for more restructuring.

"We are still a mixture of businesses that are growing and businesses that need to shrink to do well," Mr. Tsuga said.

Panasonic is one of several Japanese electronics makers that have recovered from heavy losses through restructuring and strategic change.

Sharp Corp., traditionally known as a TV maker, has been playing a bigger role as a supplier of mobile displays for Apple Inc. and other global smartphone brands. On Friday, Sharp said it made a net profit of Yen6.5 billion for the quarter through September, while revenue rose 14% to Yen707.9 billion.

Write to Juro Osawa at [email protected]

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/panasonic-to-grow-via-acquisitions-tie-ups-2014-10-31