Japan’s Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. is officially changing its name to Panasonic Corporation to consolidate its global brand. The name change was approved Thursday and will take effect on October 1, 2008. The company was founded by Konosuke Matsushita in 1918.
The name change signals the importance of a single unified brand in the global market. The company acknowledged that the Panasonic brand had suffered because the company had stuck with the old name.
The Japanese company will also drop its local brand, National, for products such as rice cookers, washing machines and refrigerators effective March 31, 2010
[Site: Panasonic.co.jp]