General Electric completed its breakup into three companies — GE Aerospace, GE HealthCare, and GE Vernova — on Tuesday, fulfilling a plan that was first announced three years ago.
While GE HealthCare launched last year, GE Aerospace and GE Vernova, which will focus on the creation of products for the generation and distribution of energy to homes and businesses, have now launched as well. GE Aerospace CEO Larry Culp rang the opening bell on the New York Stock Exchange to mark GE Aerospace becoming a publicly traded company on Tuesday morning.
“Building on a century of learning and carrying forth GE’s legacy of innovation, GE Aerospace moves forward with a strong balance sheet and greater focus to invent the future of flight, lift people up, and bring them home safely,” Culp said.
General Electric was founded in 1892, when the Lynn-based Thomson-Houston Electric Company merged with the Schenectady, N.Y.-based Edison General Electric.
The company’s first plant in Lynn played a major role in World War II, when it produced the country’s first jet engine. It also played a major role in the creation of the FA-18 fighter jet and the Apache and Blackhawk helicopters.
The Lynn plant was a major employer in the city throughout the twentieth century, and employment at the plant peaked at 13,000 in 1985, although it remains a substantial employer in the city.
While GE’s aerospace section continued to perform well, its banking unit, GE Capital, experienced turbulence during the late-2000s financial crisis.
The company then left financial services behind. Former CEO Jeff Immelt wanted to turn GE into a software company while continuing to work in the aerospace field.
However, the company’s debt continued to present a major challenge, and its stock declined into the tenure of his successor, John Flannery.
After Flannery, Culp attempted to minimize waste at the company, but the near-total pause in flying during the COVID-19 pandemic was devastating to its fortunes. Culp’s plan, as a result, was to divide the company into three.
Since GE HealthCare broke off, GE’s share price nearly doubled in a year, now sitting at a market cap of $190 billion. GE Aerospace has approximately $32 billion in revenue, GE HealthCare has $20 billion, and GE Vernova has $15 billion.
