MSNBC is rebranding to MS NOW, but Microsoft’s influence lingers. A look at the history of Microsoft’s role, and how the “MS” lives on.

MSNBC will rebrand as MS Now later this year as Comcast separates the network from NBC News, marking a push for independence and a new corporate identity.

Cable news channel MSNBC will rebrand as My Source News Opinion World, or MS NOW, according to internal memos seen by Reuters today, as parent Comcast presses ahead with the planned separation of many NBCUniversal cable networks later this year.

MSNBC will soon have a new name and look. The network announced it will rebrand as MS NOW - short for "My Source News Opinion World" - by the end of the year. The change comes as MSNBC splits from NBCUniversal in a $7 billion spinoff deal that will create a new media company

The TV network, which appeals to liberal audiences with a stable of personalities including Rachel Maddow, Ari Melber and Nicole Wallace, has been building its own separate news division from NBC News. It will also remove NBC’s peacock symbol from its logo as part of the change, which will take effect later this year.

MSNBC is set to rebrand later this year, a move that marks its separation from NBC and the removal of the familiar peacock logo.

The rebranding — which stands for My Source for News, Opinion, and the World — comes as Comcast spins off several of its cable networks into a new company called Versant. The change will drop both the NBC name and the peacock logo from MSNBC 's branding.

MSNBC will divorce itself from the NBC branding and rename itself “MS NOW” when the channel is spun out by Comcast and relaunched under Versant’s ownership, the company announced on Monday.