From CRN: General Electric revealed on Thursday its plan to spin off its GE Digital business into a standalone industrial Internet of Things company, ending months of speculation about the division's fate.
The Boston-based company also announced that it has reached an agreement to sell a majority stake of ServiceMax, its field service management software that was part of GE Digital, to private equity firm Silver Lake — a move that will allow the new company to focus on industrial IoT. Financial terms of the deal, which is expected to close in the first quarter next year, were not disclosed.
The spinoff of GE Digital and sale of ServiceMax are happening in the midst of a major restructuring of GE as the company faces shareholder pressure to reduce its large amount of debt. The company has already announced plans to spin off its healthcare and railroad locomotive divisions and sell two IoT-related businesses, connected lighting division Current and automation division Intelligent Platforms.
While becoming a standalone company, GE Digital will remain under the whole ownership of GE. The industrial IoT player will be run independently, however, with its own board of directors, its own equity structure and a new brand and identity.
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