Back in January, Matsushita Electric announced that it would be changing its company name to 'Panasonic Corporation'. The name change has now been approved by the company's shareholders and will go into effect on October 1, 2008.
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (Matsushita [NYSE symbol: MC]), best known for its Panasonic brand products, today announced its shareholders approved a proposal to change the company's name to "Panasonic Corporation" at its 101st Annial Shareholders Meeting that was held today. The change will become effective from October 1, 2008. The name change will also take effect for some of the group companies currently using the names Matsushita or National. The shareholders of each of these companies approved that this move would also become effective from October 1, 2008. In addition, Matsushita announced its ticker symbol change on the New York Stock Exchange from "MC" to "PC" as of October 1, 2008.
The brand changeover from National to Panasonic to be phased-in across Japan commencing October 1, 2008 has started earlier than the original plan, expected to complete within fiscal year 2010 ending March 2010. Currently, the National brand is used for home appliances and housing equipments in Japan.
If you'd like to read more, Panasonic's entire press release can be found here.
