Panasonic: A 1918 Lamp Socket, the MCA Hollywood Flop and Tesla Batteries

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Konosuke Matsushita founded the Matsushita Electric Housewares Manufacturing Works in 1918 with a duplex lamp socket that let a home with a single ceiling socket run a light and an appliance at once. In 1927 he sold battery-powered bicycle lamps under the brand National. During World War II the company built ships, aircraft components and vacuum tubes; the Allied occupation broke up the group, which rebuilt as a keiretsu of interlocking suppliers, distributors and a bank. Matsushita's brother-in-law Toshio Iue founded Sanyo, a rival Panasonic bought in 2009. The Panasonic name was coined in 1955 because National was already trademarked in the U.S., and the parent company took the name in 2008.

Panasonic co-introduced VHS and passed Philips as the world's largest consumer electronics maker. In November 1990 it paid $6.59 billion for MCA, owner of Universal Pictures and Universal Music Group, then sold 80 percent to Seagram for $7 billion in 1995. Its Viera plasma TVs, launched in 2003, led the world but lost to cheaper LCDs; shares hit a 37-year low in November 2012, plasma ended in 2014, and LCD panel production was phased out by 2021. In 2014 it also signed with Tesla on the Nevada Gigafactory, became the exclusive battery supplier for the Model 3 by 2016, and opened a $4 billion battery plant in Kansas in July 2025.

• Panasonic sold its Tesla stake in 2021 at a large profit while staying a major battery supplier.
• Panasonic Avionics dominates in-flight entertainment and connectivity on commercial jets.
• In 2021 Panasonic paid $6.45 billion for supply chain software company Blue Yonder.
• Panasonic partnered with Denver on smart city infrastructure linking energy, transportation and housing.
• In early 2026 Panasonic handed TV manufacturing, marketing and logistics for Europe and North America to Skyworth.