Panasonic

Panasonic is a Japanese brand of home appliances and electronics.

Corporation Panasonic was founded in 1918 and originally bore the name of Matsushita Electric Housewares Manufacturing Works. Headquartered in the Japanese city of Kadoma.

Panasonic as a trademark appeared in 1955. The word Panasonic is derived from "pan" ("all") and "sonic" ("sound"), because initially under this brand produced audio equipment.

From the beginning of 1960-ies the company owned a controlling stake in the JVC, the developer of home video standard VHS. In 2007 a controlling stake in the JVC was sold to a group of investors.

In 2009 was the signing of a merger agreement with the company Sanyo. Panasonic acquired 50,19% of shares in Sanyo of 404 billion yen ($4.6 billion).

Today the company includes 638 enterprises. The main trademarks under which the products are released:

    Panasonic — consumer electronics (plasma televisions, cameras, phones, DVD players, crock pots, breadmakers, blenders, vacuum cleaners), devices personal use;
    Technics — professional audio equipment;
    Lumix — sub-brand digital cameras from Panasonic, from compact to SLR.

Trademarks no longer used by the company in 2008:

    National — consumer electronics for the Japanese market;
    Quasar — cheap consumer electronics for the North American market;
    Ramsa professional audio equipment.