Broadcasting live for the first time in July 1996, the cable news channel and accompanying site launched as part of a joint venture between NBC and Microsoft. That's definitely a bit of a change, and it's due to a parting of ways in the near future. Instead of living under the NBCUniversal umbrella, MSNBC is slated to become part of a new publicly traded company called Versant. This means the network will become a direct competitor to NBC, and, as one can guess, NBC doesn't want it carrying its initials anymore. It also means that NBC will no longer be sharing news resources with MSNBC, as it has for nearly three decades.