Yeah, it was the result of a deal intended to provide NBC content on MSN, giving it news and stuff. As MSN failed, its most successful content got turned into websites.

The MSNBC website back in the 90s was actually pretty great. It had a menu system that would update with live headlines. It was really impressive (to me, at least) back then.

I think MSNBC began as a joint effort between Microsoft and GE, but Microsoft sold its stake a long time ago at this point. It's bizarre that MSNBC has kept the name, but I guess it has branding value at this point.