Sanyo Electric Co. is reportedly in negotiations to sell its digital camera business to an investment fund by the end of fiscal 2012.

The reason is the fact that Sanyo's parent company, Panasonic Corp., is also selling digital cameras. The potential sale of Sansyo's camera unit would eliminate overlapping businesses within the Panasonic group and raise operational efficiency, "informed" sources told the Daily Yomiuri newspaper.

Sanyo is supplying digital cameras to companies such as Olympus on an original equipment manufacturer basis.

Nonetheless, Sanyo spun off the digital camera operation last July following the slump in the compact digital camera market.