The market speculated whether GE will sell its lighting division after the company recently sold the home appliance division for US $3.3 billion to Swedish company Electrolux, according to a Lighting report.
“Lighting is the next piece of the classic GE businesses that are not a critical part of the refocus on infrastructure-related businesses,” Nicholas Heymann, a William Blair & Co. analyst in New York told Bloomberg. He also estimated the lighting business would could sell at US $1 billion.
A GE spokesperson denied the claims, saying the company has no plans of spinning off GE Lighting anytime soon. “GE Lighting is not part of the sale of the GE Appliances business to Electrolux and will continue to be a part of GE,” said the spokesperson. “GE Lighting is a valued part of the GE portfolio and is well positioned to excel based on future growth trends, with customers across the globe looking to us as a trusted partner.”
With GE is turning its attention towards aviation, oil and drilling industries, “the company is no longer a consumer company”, an AP report cited Andrew Inkpen, a professor at the Thunderbird School of Global Management saying. The professor has written extensively on GE. Other reports also noted GE’s restructure focus is abandoning the consumer sector to focus more on B2B businesses.
GE aims to generate 75 percent of revenue from its industrial businesses by 2016, according to a Forbes report. Currently 60 percent of the company earnings are from its industrial business.
