(Reuters) – General Electric Co said on Tuesday it would split into three public companies focusing on energy, healthcare and aviation as the industrial conglomerate seeks to simplify its business, pare debt and enhance its battered share price.
The move comes in the wake of some major U.S. corporate split-ups in the past, as listed below.
YEAR COMPANY
1984 AT&T Inc In 1974, the U.S. government
filed an antitrust lawsuit
against AT&T Corp because it had
a monopoly on telephone lines.
After eight years of litigation,
the two sides reached a
settlement that led to AT&T
giving up control of its
regional operating companies, or
Baby Bells. (https://reut.rs/3mWDI3Q)
2015 Ebay Inc In June 2015, e-commerce firm
eBay Inc approved the spinoff of
PayPal. (https://www.ebayinc.com/stories/news/ebay-inc-board-approves-completion-of-ebay-and-paypal-separation/)
2015 Hewlett Packard Co In November 2015,
Hewlett-Packard split into two
listed companies. Hewlett
Packard Enterprise, which
comprises the corporate hardware
and service business, while
Hewlett-Packard, which was
renamed HP Inc, comprises the
computers and printers business.
(https://reut.rs/3og9c4i)
2016 Honeywell In September 2016, Honeywell
International International Inc, a U.S.
manufacturer of aerospace parts
and climate control systems,
approved the spinoff its $1.3
billion resins and chemicals
operations into a standalone
company, AdvanSix Inc. (https://reut.rs/3F36dTY)
2019 DuPont In April 2019, DowDuPont Inc
spun off its material science
division Dow, Inc, followed in
June 2019 with agriscience
company Corteva, as part of its
breakup into three companies. (https://reut.rs/31McHYU)
2020 United Technologies In March 2020, United
Technologies Corp approved the
spinoffs of Carrier Global
Corporation and Otis Worldwide
Corporation. (https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/united-technologies-board-of-directors-approves-separation-of-carrier-and-otis-and-declares-spin-off-distribution-of-carrier-and-otis-shares-301021893.html)
2021 IBM IBM spun off a large chunk of
its company, the managed and
infrastructure business, as
Kyndryl in November 2021, as the
century-old tech company shed
its slow-growing business to
focus on high-margin cloud and
artificial intelligence
businesses.
(Reporting by Chavi Mehta and Tiyashi Datta in Bengaluru and Karen Pierog in Chicago; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
