Matsushita goes with Panasonic brand name for all divisions

For the few people who knew the brand Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., the company is finally, officially going with the Panasonic brand name we all know and love. After much deliberation, shareholders approved a proposal to change the company's name to Panasonic Corporation. The change will begin in Japan October 1, 2008 with an NYSE symbol change from "MC" to "PC" and will be complete in March 2010 with all products and divisions under the Panasonic moniker. While this won't be a big deal to those of us who know Panasonic for its displays and electronics, gone will be the Matsushita battery, ecology, and welding division names. Good bye Matsushita, it was fun while it lasted.

[SheauxDown @ Jun 26th 2008 12:49PM]

Does that mean the National brand is gone, too? I saw a lot of appliances sold under that name (which came out in Japan wayyyy before they created the Panasonic brand for America).

[Charly @ Jun 26th 2008 7:10PM]

Yeah, the National brand name is being phased out as well.

[dc @ Jun 26th 2008 12:52PM]

"The company also announced that its ‘National’ brand, which is mainly used in Japan for Building Products, Electrical Construction Materials, and Home Appliances, will be replaced with the ‘Panasonic’ brand."

So... I'll be using Panasonic toilets and roof tiles in the future.

[I LOVE THE CAPS LOCK KEY @ Jun 27th 2008 3:56AM]

And Panasonic Bicycles
http://www.yellowjersey.org/pana.html

[I LOVE THE CAPS LOCK KEY @ Jun 27th 2008 3:59AM]

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/japan.html#panasonic

[Wwhat @ Jun 26th 2008 12:54PM]

Panasonic sounds american, Matsushita sounds japanese, I'm not sure it would not be smarter to have both names seeing american made products seem to have a bad name in america.
Plus you never know how public perception is going to go across the world.

[phanbouy @ Jun 26th 2008 1:02PM]

Uh...yeah.. people would rather buy Matsushita VCRs that never existed

[riggs @ Jun 26th 2008 1:10PM]

i just said your username after reading that post.

[Jeff @ Jun 26th 2008 1:26PM]

Pfft. I know a genuine Panaphonics when I see one. And look, there's Magnetbox and Sorny!

[Wwhat @ Jun 26th 2008 1:31PM]

People might buy a japanese sounding product sooner yeah, and I've heard of matsushita and I'm not japanese, so it's not like they are THAT unknown.
Look at asus and gigabyte etcetera, what do they advertise with? "100% japanese capacitors" now I know that's only capacitors but it shows the japanese name can have a good PR impact.
(of course in the capacitors case it's offset against bad dodgy chinese capacitors, but still)
As for VCR's, that's a device from a bygone era, but even so, they could easily start a production line and slap matsushita as name on it, they already did 4 different brands simultaneously you know, and who knows what products they released under what name in what country over the years, perhaps every shop in india has matsushita vcr's and we would not know about it.

Thanks for saying my nick riggs :) soon I'll be famous!!

P.S. I wish replaying after using the email notification would work already, geez.

[Jason Barlow @ Jun 26th 2008 1:57PM]

Yeah, I would much rather buy a Sushi brand VCR than a Panasonic. Great logic, Officer Doofy.

[Jeffro @ Jun 26th 2008 1:03PM]

I have a Panasonic bicycle. It was a very high end racing bike that I used back in the late 80's - early 90's when I was a Catagory II racer. A custom built frame with Italian Columbus tubing. Very fast and light for the day. It was called a "Team America" with a cool three color fade paint job. It still rocks and now is in line with the entire corporation even though they sold the bicycle division to Giant in 1998. At the time Panasonic was the largest bicycle builder in the world. Now Giant is.

[bolezhinkov @ Jun 26th 2008 1:06PM]

hey awesome - I think my old man might have a very similar bike . . . it was always hanging out on the rack at least.

[Logan Renz @ Jun 26th 2008 1:06PM]

I am always seeing Matsushita and reading Mitsubishi. Life will be simple again.

[michas_pi @ Jun 26th 2008 1:11PM]

Almost every laptop I've ever purchased came with a Matsushita optical drive and every drive is MatsuSHITTY.

However, the radio in my car is also from Matsushita and it's awesome.

[KilgoreTrout @ Jun 26th 2008 1:14PM]

It's amazing how little I care about this piece of information

[snapa @ Jun 26th 2008 3:09PM]

You obviously cared enough to post on Engadget about it :rolleyes:

[Jacob @ Jun 26th 2008 1:17PM]

oh good, now we won't see Matsu****a (stupid filters)

[Rob @ Jun 26th 2008 1:17PM]

What about "Quasar"? They were decent VCRs.

[Galley @ Jun 26th 2008 1:18PM]

What, no love for Quasar?

[drebes @ Jun 26th 2008 1:19PM]

The Matsushita brand is used mostly in Japan. Even if a product is sold as Panasonic or National, Japanese still think about them in terms of "Matsushita products". I've heard that they kept using the brand in Japan for so long because of the power of the company founders which still had a lot of influence on management of the company. With such influence diminished, they are free to get rid of the "non global" brand.

[Jamar @ Jun 26th 2008 3:58PM]

It's also used in China (sort of- the company's Chinese name is 松下電器 but the English name is still Panasonic).

[adrian @ Jun 26th 2008 1:20PM]

I prefer the Matsushita Electric name. As for their consumer products, I would rather see the Technics name make a comeback, Panasonic just sounds cheap.

[Jason Barlow @ Jun 26th 2008 2:01PM]

I agree, the Panasonic name doesn't ring of high-end products. However, their flat-screen TVs rock the freakin' casbah!

[Craig @ Jun 27th 2008 1:48AM]

Panasonic may sound cheap to you, but all of my Panasonic products (a laptop, a razer, and something else I'm failing to remember at the moment) are fantastic...built like tanks, run forever, and perform well. While Sony may be perceived as a more upscale brand, actual real-world performance heavily favors Panasonic.

[Adam @ Jun 26th 2008 1:51PM]

Does this mean all those DJ turntables will now be Panasonic, instead of Technics?

[Harvey @ Jun 26th 2008 1:56PM]

I'm not certain PC is the best choice for an electronics firm's stock symbol? What next, do they hire that guy who plays PC in the Apple versus PC commercials.

[tanooki2003 @ Jun 26th 2008 2:08PM]

There goes the great legend of Technics, even though they have been falling downhill since the beginning of the 7.1 surround sound evolution.

I just can't warm up to HI-FI audio gear being a Panasonic instead of Technics. Then again I kind of saw this coming many miles down the road. i sort of knew this would happen.

Oh well this is the new age of mergers, buyouts, and consolidating.

[tanooki2003 @ Jun 26th 2008 2:09PM]

There goes the great legend of Technics, even though they have been falling downhill since the beginning of the 7.1 surround sound evolution.

I just can't warm up to HI-FI audio gear being a Panasonic instead of Technics. Then again I kind of saw this coming many miles down the road. i sort of knew this would happen.

Oh well this is the new age of mergers, buyouts, and consolidating.

[Bosco @ Jun 26th 2008 2:32PM]

What difference does it make? It's all made in China and Mexico anyway.

Signed,

Lou Dobbs

[uonomedia @ Jun 26th 2008 3:10PM]

Matsushita is the charismatic founder's family name. It is as big as Ford Motor Co. changes its corporate name to... uh... something else. (I know they wouldn't drop Ford for Mercury.)

[Some Kid @ Jun 26th 2008 3:32PM]

what and or who is matsushia?
this is a real idea for life i guessthough

[Rick Urtel @ Jun 26th 2008 3:47PM]

I guess this includes the National brand name. But what about the National Panasonic name?Remember those names. They have a lot of Batteries for a lot of things under National, especially medical and professional equipment that specifies them as the only replacements. Poor purchasing people will be so confused because the RFP will specify them ONLY.

[tanooki2003 @ Jun 26th 2008 4:50PM]

Matsushita was the main corporation behind the child brandnames such as Panasonic, Technics, National, and Quasar. You all remember Quasar don't you? It was the cheapie low end alternative to Panasonic.

[cnr1993 @ Jun 26th 2008 6:32PM]

Every optical drive in my macs that are Matsushita have never worked... Every time I open a new mac up it's the first thing I check, if I see Matsushita I swear, and get mentally prepared to take the time to drop it off for repair. I have always called them Matsu-SHIT-a. Going to have to find a new name for Panasonic... Any ideas?

[El Taco @ Jun 26th 2008 7:03PM]

well I was thinking much-a-shit-a. If you're going to have a swear word in your company name, might as well make it obvious.

[tekdroid @ Jun 27th 2008 1:17AM]

I'm not sure Konosuke Mastushita or his family would approve (he's not around to see it), but it was about time. The name is quite embarrassing in English-speaking countries, particularly the "MATSHITA" drives showing up in PCs (curse 8-characters!).

Panasonic isn't the best name either, but it's by far their strongest brand so it makes sense to go with it. Personally I'd love to have seen a totally different (unique) name chosen for the company and their brands just left to their products (because frankly I feel Panasonic is OK but just doesn't cover the activities of the company as a whole all too well).

[tekdemon @ Jun 27th 2008 2:16AM]

Lame...why change Matsushita when there's no reason to? I personally liked the Matsushita name being on the fine print of Panasonic branded appliances, and I still have fond memories of the National branded rice cooker we used to have that just plain refused to stop working after 2 decades of use.

I like Panasonic and all but I don't think it was really neccessary to do this, especially since I'm sure there's people who liked the National or Matsushita names.

[maff @ Jun 27th 2008 8:39AM]

OLD NEWS, engadget reported this like 4 months ago, now my scroll whell will wear out at this rate, damn you!

[dale @ Jun 27th 2008 9:12PM]

I believe this was announced a couple months ago