Panasonic To Continue Tesla Partnership Despite Sale Of $3.6 Billion Stake

Winds of change are abound at Japanese conglomerate Panasonic which now has a new CEO in Yuki Kusumi. It has announced the sale of a $3.61 billion stake it had in the world's most valuable automaker, Tesla, since 2010. Panasonic has been Tesla's oldest partner enabling it to pioneer the modern electric car. This sale doesn't reflect the changing of the guard at Panasonic or Tesla's newfound additions to its battery supply chain in LG Energy Solutions and CATL. 

Instead, Panasonic plans on fully being in sync with Tesla, and Kusumi has also indicated that he is willing to make a large investment in Tesla's 4680 battery cells which are being prototyped by Panasonic which runs operations within Tesla's US gigafactory. 

Tesla has partnered with Panasonic, LG and CATL for these new tab-less batteries

Panasonic is looking to diversify its battery business which has been highly dependent on Tesla. In fact, in 2010 when Panasonic bought 1.4 million Tesla shares, they were valued at only $30 million. By March 2020, when Tesla usurped Toyota as the world's most valuable car company, those shares were valued at $730 million. 

But since earlier this year when Tesla initially started accepting Bitcoin and Elon Musk started pushing dogecoin, the cryptocurrency hedge spiked Panasonic's share to $3.61 billion. Crypto has been volatile of late and even Musk went back on his views on Bitcoin and said that Tesla will not be accepting the most famous cryptocurrency. 

Analysts believe this will be a good return on investment for Panasonic and will enable it to diversify its supply chain for batteries. Panasonic has also said that it will buy shares of Blue Yonder which makes supply chain software in a $7.1 billion deal acquiring the company. This is Panasonic's biggest acquisition in the last decade which is also perhaps why it is divesting its Tesla stake.