Panasonic sells its stake in Tesla for nearly $4 billion: report

Japanese company says battery deal with Tesla will not be affected.

Panasonic Corp. sold its entire stake in Tesla Inc. last fiscal year, the Japanese business daily Nikkei reported Friday .

Panasonic , which builds lithium batteries for Tesla, reportedly sold all of its Tesla shares by the end of March for an estimated $3.88 billion. A Panasonic executive told Nikkei that its business relationship with Tesla will not change.

The Japanese company reportedly bought about 1.4 million shares of Tesla $(TSLA)$ in 2010, at a price of $21.15 apiece. Tesla shares sold for $667 on March 31, after falling as low as $563 a share in mid-March.

Panasonic announced it was buying U.S.-based supply-chain software company Blue Yonder in April .

Panasonic shares traded in Tokyo are up 9.6% year to date, and up 39% over the past year; Tesla shares are down 3.7% this year but up 245% over the past 12 months.