GE to form three public companies

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Last edited Tue Nov 9, 2021, 11:11 AM - Edit history (1)

GE to form three public companies

Tue, November 9, 2021, 6:37 AM

Nov 9 (Reuters) - General Electric Co said on Tuesday it would form three public companies by combining GE Renewable Energy, GE Power, and GE Digital into one, while pursuing a tax-free spin-off of GE Healthcare.

Its aviation unit will be the third separate company, the U.S. conglomerate said. (Reporting by Abhijith Ganapavaram in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)

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Business

General Electric will split into three public companies

Long a symbol of American ingenuity, GE will split into businesses focused on energy, aviation and health care

By Taylor Telford
Today at 8:12 a.m. EST

General Electric plans to split its business into three stand-alone companies focused on health care, energy and aviation, the company said Tuesday.

The industrial powerhouse, which makes everything from plane engines to lightbulbs, has long been a symbol of American ingenuity. But in recent years, it has been shedding assets to ease its massive debt load.

The plan marks a massive transformation for the more than 100-year-old conglomerate, which traces its lineage back to Thomas Edison.

GE Healthcare is slated to be spun off in early 2023, the company said, while GE’s renewables and power units will be spun off as a new energy business in early 2024. The remaining business, GE, will focus on aviation and be led by chairman and chief executive Larry Culp.

“The world demands — and deserves — we bring our best to solve the biggest challenges in flight, health care, and energy,” Culp said in a statement outlining the plan. “By creating three industry-leading, global public companies, each can benefit from greater focus, tailored capital allocation, and strategic flexibility to drive long-term growth and value for customers, investors, and employees.

GE’s shares soared nearly 7 percent in early trading following the announcement. Its shares are up more than 50 percent in 2021, according to MarketWatch.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

[Tomconroy]

1. Huh. I own a tiny bit. Not one of my best choices.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. Same here. NT

[mahatmakanejeeves]

3. U.S. Taxpayers Bankrolled General Electric. Then It Moved Its Workforce Overseas

U.S. Taxpayers Bankrolled General Electric. Then It Moved Its Workforce Overseas

BY ABBY VESOULIS
NOVEMBER 9, 2021 12:20 PM EST

When Sam Bansfield first started working as a material handler at General Electric’s Lynn, Massachusetts plant in 2012, she remembers the noise—the loud clanking of her coworkers in the piece-making wing of the jet engine factory.

Nowadays, she says, the place is painfully quiet. “You can hear everybody,” she says. “There’s no machines running. There’s not any work.”

Bansfield’s experience resonates across the United States. Since 1989, GE’s domestic labor force has declined by 75%—from 277,000 to just 70,000 workers, according to a new report first reviewed by TIME from the University of Massachusetts, Boston and Cornell University. Part of that decrease can be explained by GE’s decision to sell pieces of its business, including its biopharma and transportation arms. But its manufacturing plants have been gutted too: since the 1980s, production personnel at GE’s Lynn, and Schenectady, New York plants have been cut by 90%.

This dynamic reflects in many ways a central economic story in the U.S. over the last thirty years. Large corporations have been off-shoring, and down-sizing domestic manufacturing en masse since the 1990s, fueled by noncompetitive labor rates, powerful trade agreements, and innovations in automation. On Tuesday, GE announced that it will divide itself into three public companies—aviation, healthcare and energy.

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