General Electric has announced plans to sell its Industrial Solutions business, which supplies equipment to the electrical-distribution and grid industries, as well as its GE Water business.
GE expects to raise $4 billion from the sale of these businesses, which are the company’s smallest. The company has also vowed to cut $1 billion in expenses in order to increase its profit margins.
This latest announcement reflects a trend seen in GE over the past few years – downsizing the business and focusing more narrowly on heavy industrial equipment and digital technology.
The company’s chief executive Jeff Immelt has also revealed that the company will be changing the way it makes its industrial products, increasing the use of 3D printing to manufacture parts in its jet engine business, and purchasing software startups in order to build up its GE Digital business.